Years ago, when my husband was ministering in Lima, Peru, God spoke to him and said, “Ninety-seven percent of My people are living beneath what I’ve provided for them. If I told you to take a whole year off from work, you ought to have enough money in your operating account to live on for at least one year, without touching any of your savings. If I told a pastor who had 100 families in his church to build a building, if that pastor is teaching the people the Word, and they are doing it, in one offering that congregation ought to be able to give one million dollars without touching their savings.” (That would be $10,000 per family.)
This challenges me. I’m sure it challenges you, too. What was God talking about to my husband? He was really just talking about enjoying God’s best. How many of us could say that we are experiencing God’s best in every arena of our life? God provided His best for us because He wants us to experience His best!
In what God said to my husband, He was stating what His best would look like in the financial arena – not living from paycheck to paycheck, but having more than enough so that we can always be generous.
Many times, we are robbed of God’s best simply due to wrong thinking. If we think wrong, we will believe wrong, speak wrong, and have less than God’s best.
We read in 3 John 1:2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy SOUL PROSPERETH.” Our health and prosperity are connected to the prospering of our souls (the renewing of our minds) – they’re connected to how we THINK!
According to what God said to my husband, only 3% of His people think right regarding the financial arena and all God has provided for us.
If we think wrong, it will hinder us in our giving and in our receiving.
First of all, when we sow a seed – give an offering – we are to release our faith. We don’t just give the money, but we release our faith at the same time – believing that God is our Provider and that He will cause our seed to produce a full harvest.
I’ve seen people who are GOOD givers, but they aren’t good at receiving – their wrong thinking hinders their ability to receive the harvest that belongs to them. They have a hard time thinking that they should have God’s best. They limit God in the way they think. They are good givers, but poor receivers – that’s still a poverty mentality.
Second of all, we also have to check the quality of our soil. I believe in a hundredfold harvest, but to receive hundredfold harvest, we have to be hundredfold ground. The quality of the soil affects the quality of the harvest – and our heart is the soil. We must have a heart that is free from anything that would hinder the seed from producing to its fullest potential.
In the life of Joseph, we see that he protected the soil of his heart in the midst of great opposition and testing. He was sold by his brothers as a slave, then he faced a mock trial, falsely accused of violating Potiphar’s wife, and was thrown in prison for 12 years – seemingly forgotten. But through great adversity, he kept his heart right – he kept it free from offense, unforgiveness, and bitterness. Therefore, God was able to promote him, and he ended up running the economy of a nation. He kept his heart right, he thought right, he believed right, and he was able to receive God’s best for his life.
God’s best in every arena of life belongs to all of us. But it won’t fall on us automatically – we must be doers of the Word. We must let the Word govern us in our thinking, in our doing, and in our receiving – for God’s best belongs to us!