You Don't Have to Live in Lack-Increase to Overflow
January 2023
Praise the Lord for a promised eternity in heaven with our Savior! But, as significant as this is, I would like to propose that God is bigger than a promised one day. His desire is to bring heaven to earth now to show the world He is real and He is true. Struggling in poverty and lack is not a testimony to the will of God. It is the opposite! He wants us to be blessed to be a blessing to others. We are ministers of the Gospel, we need to be positioned to be able to minister solutions to be people in need. If we ourselves are constantly in need, how can we meet needs? We need to minister healing to the sick and freedom to the captive. But we also need to meet the financial needs of others and show them how to live above the curse financially. Poverty and lack are a part of the curse of this world just like sin and sickness are of the curse. Galatians 3:13-14, TPT, “Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed the curse completely as He became a curse in our place. For it is written: “Everyone who is hung upon a tree is cursed.” Jesus Christ dissolved the curse from our lives, so that in him all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon gentiles. And now through faith, we receive the promised Holy Spirit who lives in us.” If Jesus paid the full price to set us free from the curse of this fallen world, that means He paid the debt of sin to give us a clean slate, He paid the debt of sickness to give us healing, He paid the debt of fear to give us peace, He paid the debt of depression to give us joy, and He paid the debt of lack to give us prosperity! God has more to offer than many of us are living in! He is a bigger God than you think. Maybe you need to know the side of God that wants to make you abundant in finances. You can start knowing the God of more than enough now! It is God’s will for you to have and enjoy life and have it in abundance- to the full, till it overflows (John 10:10)- IN EVERY AREA OF YOUR LIFE!
Now that we know that God paid the price for us to go from lacking to lacking NOTHING, let’s see how we can tap into how the kingdom of God works. Through Jesus we are exempt from living under the same limitations as the economy of this natural world. The Bible calls us citizens of heaven. So we can experience the benefits of being citizens of the kingdom of heaven while we live on earth. See Philippians 3:20, TPT, “But we are a colony of heaven on earth as we cling tightly to our life-giver, the Lord Jesus Christ,”. We live under different laws than the world. Although we abide by and remain obedient to the laws of the land, there are higher spiritual laws that we can live according to as members of the Kingdom of God. Something to keep in mind is that most things that God calls us to in His Word do not make sense to the world. It’s typically the opposite of what society says is the “normal” way of doing things. So remember this as we look at how we can begin to actually have our finances look more like heaven’s economy.
We now know that we ascribe to a higher set of spiritual laws that are different from those that govern our society and the economy around us. So now what are our action steps to get our finances moving in a heavenly way? GIVE! Remember the laws of heaven may not make sense to our natural minds in this natural world. So it may not make sense to your natural mind to give money when you are trying to get more money. Read Luke 6:38, TPT, “Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! The measurement of your generosity becomes the measurement of your return.” Everything in life is a seed that returns a harvest. Give mercy and you will reap mercy. Give love and you will reap love. Give gossip and you will reap gossip. Give selfishness and you will reap selfishness. The list goes on and on. But a law is a law and it goes into every area of life. So if you give money generously then what will you reap overflowingly? MONEY.
The first step in giving, is tithing! Whatever your local body is that you attend your weekly church services is where your tithe goes. The tithe is the first 10% of your gross income (the amount you make before taxes.) The tithe started with Abraham. He was in such devotion and adoration to God that He, without being told to, gave his tithe of 10%. There is a promise that God gives to those who tithe. Let’s read in Malachi 3:10, NLT, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Isn’t that such a cool thing about God. This shows His heart of generous love. He could have just said “give to Me because I said so.” But that isn't who He is. He said give and I’ll give even more in return. I was blessed to grow up in a household that tithed so I knew the importance of it when it came to my own life. Ever since I’ve been a tither, I have never once been without. I never did not have the money to pay a bill, have groceries, deal with an emergency, or have gone too long without being able to buy something that I wanted. Even during periods of unemployment!
The tithe is what I look at as the “maintenance and protection” of my finances. This keeps the enemy out and keeps me protected. Next, we will look at offerings which is the “increase and overflow” of my finances. This type of giving is your generous giving that is on top of your tithing. This is where you give to ministries that are “fertile soil.” And by fertile soil I mean, ministries that are actively living by the Word of God and bringing the Gospel to a lost world. It is a privilege and a must to sow into the work of the men and women of God. We get to partner with those people and ministries on the front lines to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations. Maybe you yourself aren’t reaching the unsaved people in Africa but when you sow into solid ministries that are out there doing that, you get to share in the reward (Matthew 10:41). There are so many promises in the Word of God that tell us very explicitly that when we sow financially and honor God financially we will receive abundantly in return in our finances. (Luke 6:38, 2 Corinthians 8:9, 3 John 2, Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:1-3, Deuteronomy 8:18, Proverbs 13:22, Psalm 35:27, Psalm 84:11, Proverbs 10:22, Proverbs 13:21, Philippians 4:19 to name a few). This verse sums it up right here in 2 Corinthians 9:10-11, TPT, “This generous God who supplies abundant seed for the farmer, which becomes bread for our meals, is even more extravagant toward you. First He supplies every need, plus more. Then He multiplies the seed as you sow it, so that the harvest of your generosity will grow. You will be abundantly enriched in every way as you give generously on every occasion, for when we take your gifts to those in need, it causes many to give thanks to God.”
The amount of times in my life I have had financial blessings take place because of living this reaping and sowing law is amazing! God’s Word is serious. It works. It’s not just there to sound nice. If you will believe it and put it to the test, God always shows up true to His Word. Six months before my husband and I got married, we started to privately discuss what we would do about our living situation post marriage. We were aggressively saving for the wedding and our savings accounts were not near enough to pay for a down payment on a house. We heard a message from a “fertile soil” ministry we are partners with that really spoke to where we were at. We both felt God was telling us to sow a significant seed into their ministry. We prayed and asked for the amount to give and we both were in agreement that it was $600. At that time $600 was a significant amount to us. We prayed over it and wrote a letter of prayer to the Lord assigning that seed to be our “house seed”. We described in the letter that this seed was to prepare a way for us to be able to afford a home. Then we dated and signed it. We did not share this need, prayer, or seed with anyone. This was solely between us. Six months later, the weekend after we closed on our home, we recounted what the Lord had done. Amid our home buying transaction we had reaped exactly a 100 fold return on our $600 seed. This harvest came in the form of a discounted price on the home and the down payment was covered by a “gift of equity”. The discount and down payment totalled $60,000.00, We were specifically believing to receive the 100 fold return on this seed sown. The Bible says that people reap 30 fold, 60 fold, or 100 fold on the seed sown. We wanted to reap the 100 fold. If He’ll do it for me, He will do it for you!
If you just want some expansion in your finances or to pay off debt, He can do that too. We recently started sowing and believing for that and we already are reaping a harvest! We began to give an amount monthly that we heard from the Lord outside of our tithe. We started doing that in the last couple months. And since then my husband has received two raises and a monthly bonus! I am not saying any of this to point at us and say look how good we did. I am telling you real life experiences to show you that the Word works and God follows through on what He says. He is a faithful Father!
The one thing people often forget when learning to live by heaven’s financial laws is the reaping. We sow, God grows it, then we reap it. But how do we reap it? Reaping happens by believing the harvest is already on its way. The best way to outwardly show that belief is to talk like it has already happened and thank God like it’s already in your hand. It says in Mark 11:24, TPT, “This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.” When the seed leaves your hand and after you’ve prayed over it, assigning that seed to your need or want, that’s when it is done. From that moment on you stand expecting to see it show up. So don’t just sow the seed and sit around and then one day wonder what happened. Be active. Thank God daily for it and believe it’s on its way to you, because it is!
God’s will is to bless you beyond your wildest belief. Don’t let the devil lie to you anymore. You don’t have to live life in lack, always striving to get that little bit more. The days of living paycheck to paycheck are over for you. Start applying these spiritual laws to your financial life and watch God open the windows of heaven over you!
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