‘Wow! Last year you were actually able to give $*** dollars... This year you’ve got to do more!’ This was the thought that ran through my head this morning surprisingly after I had just concluded a call with someone who had blessed me and prayed God’s favor over my life.
All my friends know that I am a sucker for giving things away, and I have also been blessed in that I know I can pretty much ask my friends for anything and they will give it to me if it is within their power to do so. This grace however was not always present in my life.
The year was 1996. I was in a hotel suite with a bunch of people from my church including my pastor at that time, visiting with Rev Francis Wale Oke – A venerable minister of God who had come to bless us at my home church. It was a very rare opportunity to see such a well-respected minister up close and personal, but a few moments later, if the ground could have opened up and swallowed me, it would have been a blessing; but I am so grateful to God for that encounter, that today, I would not have wished it any other way. This minister right in the middle of conversation turned to me and said ‘God asked me to tell you something’ ‘ooooh’ I thought. ‘He’s going to give me a word’ … ‘He told me to tell you that you are stingy towards Him, and He wants you to stop it!’ ‘OM goodness! Not here, not now with ALL these people around me!’ I thought, embarrassed to the tips of my ten-dollar shoes. But even as these thoughts flew through my head, I KNEW without a shadow of doubt, that this was God himself speaking to me. I knew because though I had been a faithful “tither" from my early Christian days, I saw no reason to give even more in offerings – I was stingy towards God, very stingy, and I would even skip the tithe if I had better things in my estimation to do with my money. So much like David did when confronted regarding his sin, I admitted it and I said ‘Yes sir, I will stop being stingy towards God’ I tell you that was the best response and vow to repent, that I have ever made! As a result of this conversation, I made a vow to give not because I’m compelled to, but because He asked me to – PERSONALLY AND YES! PUBLICLY… before a 'cloud of witnesses' no less! Through this experience, the Lord started to impel and empower me to give… and yes, I am free from industrial bias in the presentation of this material…. (Oh you just got it! lol) I don’t even know if Rev Wale would even remember this encounter, but it changed my life.
Fast forward to the year 2008, I was going through a financial crisis and the Lord once again spoke to my heart – ‘I want you to give more’…. Are you kidding me?! I’m no longer stingy! I get it! I am stretched to the elastic limit of my giving as it is. I can’t pull anymore than I am, or I will snap! ‘You won’t' He told me – you do what I say, and I will be your ‘elastic recoil’. OKaaaayyyy… I still tried to get out of it by speaking to one of my dearest friends, but bless her heart this is what she told me: ‘OluP why are you asking me this question when you already know what you should do?’ ‘Hummmph. Grumble, grumble, grumble…’ but again I obeyed, and not only was I able to do as the Lord asked me to, but the crisis was averted and permanently annihilated… pressed down, shaken together, well you get the picture…
So why the trip 'back down memory lane'? It was thanks to Uncle Sam who mandates that we be given a year-end statement of our giving record – As I perused the main document, I marveled at how far the Lord has brought me, and I’m still not “there” yet! I realized that since that encounter in 1996, I have never for one year given less than I did the previous year… Every year God continued to challenge me to give above- and – beyond in small yet ingenious ways and every year He empowered me to meet the goal… This is my personal journey shared, in obedience to what He asked me to do… so what have I learned from this?
All my friends know that I am a sucker for giving things away, and I have also been blessed in that I know I can pretty much ask my friends for anything and they will give it to me if it is within their power to do so. This grace however was not always present in my life.
The year was 1996. I was in a hotel suite with a bunch of people from my church including my pastor at that time, visiting with Rev Francis Wale Oke – A venerable minister of God who had come to bless us at my home church. It was a very rare opportunity to see such a well-respected minister up close and personal, but a few moments later, if the ground could have opened up and swallowed me, it would have been a blessing; but I am so grateful to God for that encounter, that today, I would not have wished it any other way. This minister right in the middle of conversation turned to me and said ‘God asked me to tell you something’ ‘ooooh’ I thought. ‘He’s going to give me a word’ … ‘He told me to tell you that you are stingy towards Him, and He wants you to stop it!’ ‘OM goodness! Not here, not now with ALL these people around me!’ I thought, embarrassed to the tips of my ten-dollar shoes. But even as these thoughts flew through my head, I KNEW without a shadow of doubt, that this was God himself speaking to me. I knew because though I had been a faithful “tither" from my early Christian days, I saw no reason to give even more in offerings – I was stingy towards God, very stingy, and I would even skip the tithe if I had better things in my estimation to do with my money. So much like David did when confronted regarding his sin, I admitted it and I said ‘Yes sir, I will stop being stingy towards God’ I tell you that was the best response and vow to repent, that I have ever made! As a result of this conversation, I made a vow to give not because I’m compelled to, but because He asked me to – PERSONALLY AND YES! PUBLICLY… before a 'cloud of witnesses' no less! Through this experience, the Lord started to impel and empower me to give… and yes, I am free from industrial bias in the presentation of this material…. (Oh you just got it! lol) I don’t even know if Rev Wale would even remember this encounter, but it changed my life.
Fast forward to the year 2008, I was going through a financial crisis and the Lord once again spoke to my heart – ‘I want you to give more’…. Are you kidding me?! I’m no longer stingy! I get it! I am stretched to the elastic limit of my giving as it is. I can’t pull anymore than I am, or I will snap! ‘You won’t' He told me – you do what I say, and I will be your ‘elastic recoil’. OKaaaayyyy… I still tried to get out of it by speaking to one of my dearest friends, but bless her heart this is what she told me: ‘OluP why are you asking me this question when you already know what you should do?’ ‘Hummmph. Grumble, grumble, grumble…’ but again I obeyed, and not only was I able to do as the Lord asked me to, but the crisis was averted and permanently annihilated… pressed down, shaken together, well you get the picture…
So why the trip 'back down memory lane'? It was thanks to Uncle Sam who mandates that we be given a year-end statement of our giving record – As I perused the main document, I marveled at how far the Lord has brought me, and I’m still not “there” yet! I realized that since that encounter in 1996, I have never for one year given less than I did the previous year… Every year God continued to challenge me to give above- and – beyond in small yet ingenious ways and every year He empowered me to meet the goal… This is my personal journey shared, in obedience to what He asked me to do… so what have I learned from this?
- That I give to the Lord, for Him to bless and for me to be blessed.
- The Lord knows what and how I give in the secret.
- That the Lord challenges me to give because in doing so, I am being His hands, His arms and His feet to minister to his body, So that it releases Him by The Law of Principles for Him to activate others to be His hands, arms and feet in ministering to me.
- That only He knows what the ‘I’ in me is capable of, and he stretches me till I fill that ‘I’, THEN He raises the bar again!
- That I through giving and pulling down the altars of selfishness, become Jerubaal - The name given to Gideon after he destroyed the altars of Baal Meaning: contender with Baal - a theophoric name given to mock the god Baʿal, whose shrine Gideon had destroyed, the intention being to imply: "Let Baʿal strive as much as he can ... it will come to nothing." Halleluyah!
The Lord also gave me a promise about 3 years ago he said to me: ‘I will preserve your bread, and I will preserve your wine’. Because God never speaks apart from His word, I was very excited when I found the following scripture to confirm that word, and he has done so and more!
Genesis 14:14-20
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram (Adepero Mettabel) of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.… note that the blessing with the bread and the wine came before the giving of the tithe …. God had discerned Abraham’s heart. Jesus or Melchizedek knew that Abraham was going to give, how do I know this? Note that the scripture reads 'And he gave him tithes of all…'Not so he gave, or therefore he gave, but and…
and
Conjunction
1. (Used to connect grammatically coordinate words, phrases, or clauses) along or together with; as well as; in addition to;
2. Added to; plus: 2 and 2 are 4.
3. Also, at the same time: to sleep and dream.
4. Then again; repeatedly: He coughed and coughed.
2 Corinthians 8:12
Amplified Bible (AMP)
For if the [eager] readiness to give is there, then it is acceptable and welcomed in proportion to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.God does not play the tit for tat game…
Finally as I grew more in Him, He freed me to give, based on the following scriptures:
Hebrews 7:8
King James Version (KJV)
And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.…. I give my tithe here; He receives it in heaven
Malachi 1:6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
Malachi 2: 1,2
And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
Malachi 3:1-6
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Malachi 3:9,10
Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Yep there are some priests who rob God and the whole nation of God’s people, but my responsibility is to give, and His responsibility is to deal with and “out” all the priests of God that are robbing Him, and not bringing all the tithes into the storehouses of the Lord… Yikes! Not quite what we thought that scripture meant right? (Thanks ‘Tunrayo for making me ‘Berean’ in nature regarding this)… another story for another day…
Malachi 3:16-18
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
Because I have heard him and I have returned, God WILL grant me the grace to discern between the righteous and the wicked, and between him that serves God and him that serves him not.
HE IS GOD ALL BY HIMSELF.
So the verdict is in:
My name is Mettabel. Formerly known as stingy towards God, “Outed” as stingy in 1996, Forgiven and restored by Jesus, enabled and empowered by God, and enlightened and liberated by the Spirit to continue giving with understanding, So help me God!
I am a child of God, and He approved this message!
© OluPero Mettabel, Jan 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment