RECEIVING FAITH LEADS TO GIVING FAITH
From The HeartPublish date: 06/07/2004
Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you. Luke
If you don’t have “receiving faith” – knowing how to believe God for His provision – you won’t have “giving faith” – faith to give more. People who are afraid to give have no faith in God’s promise to provide.
But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. 23 For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; 24 For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. 25 But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience). James 1:22-25 AMP
So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead). 18 But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.
James 2:17-18 AMP
Your giving is a measure of your faith in God and your trust in His Word. Tithing is where you start. If you do not or will not tithe – you are demonstrating a complete lack of faith in God. If you say, “I don’t tithe, but I do have faith,” then you are deceived, because faith without works is dead. You are a hearer and not a doer and you have betrayed yourself into deception by reasoning contrary to the truth.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, who has believed our report?" 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:14-17 NKJV
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. If you are not hearing, receiving, believing, and doing the Word of God – then your reasoning process will be faulty and you will make wrong decisions for your life.
Some people sit where the Word of God is preached, but they never allow it to make an entrance into their heart. They never soften the soil of their heart to receive the seed of the Word - or they allow the weeds of greed to choke their seed!
Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malachi
Tithe – so that there will be meat (food) in the house of God for you. The “closedness” or hardness of your heart that causes you to shut out the message of tithing and giving will cause you to shut out the rest of the Word as well. Your may hear it, but you will not grasp it or understand it. You won’t be eating the meat of the Word – you will barely be manage to swallow the milk!
Make a decision today to receive God’s Word concerning giving, make a decision to act on the Word, and become a giver. Don’t just give – become a giver! And watch the hand of blessing increase in your life!