BIBLE SYSTEM OF GIVING - Part 2
"So let each one give as he purposes in his heart" 2 Corinthians 9:7

(3) PERSONAL: Giving must be personal!
Giving must be personal not general or by comparison. If you are truly a child of God and the Spirit of God is in you, if any minister comes to you and says God says you must give something, that is not wrong; but you as a child of God whose heart the Spirit of God dwells, you must also have personal conviction and confirmation from God. But everything is wrong when a minister of God says you should just take what he says and you praying about it is an act of unbelief. The point is that many people who were scammed by fraudsters were victims because of love of inordinate gains and covetousness; so also many who are giving, sowing in the churches today are not doing so because of their personal love for God but because of the promised shortcut blessings by the ministers and their churches. And when you hear testimonies of blessing as a result of unbiblical giving, you don't know that majority of such testimonies are also gotten in un-biblical manners and means, which will not be included in the testimonies.

Acceptable giving to God's work or God's people must be personal. The fact that everybody is giving in a church does not implies you must give, giving is personal; and the fact that nobody gives does not mean you must not give. The fact that somebody gives big amount does not means you must likewise give, it is personal and you have the right to make your personal decision on when to give, where and who to give, how to give and the amount to give by your personal conviction. "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart." not as he is persuaded, not as he is commanded or impressed.

(4) BY NEED: Giving is by the need, not by the position!
This is the Bible truth you might not have heard before and you may never hear in your church.

(i) Bible does not say we should give to somebody because he is a pastor or minister of God, except if he or she has genuine need. The common notion that giving to men of God, even if they don't have genuine needs, will bring blessing to your life is false and extra biblical phenomenon. Giving to a man who is rich without a genuine, important or basic need will only bring eternal curse into your life. Proverbs 22:16, "He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty." Giving to a rich pastor or person only brings a rich curse; the poverty here does not necessarily means financial, but spiritual poverty and ignorance.

God never commanded people to give to somebody simply because he is a minister of God without genuine need; Jesus Christ never instructed disciples to give to people because of their spiritual positions or because they are apostles. Elijah or other prophets never asked people to give to them simply because they were prophets of Most High God when they were not in genuine or basic needs. The Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ never preached that giving to them because they were apostles of God would bring blessing to you. So where did we get the teaching of "sowing into vital ground"? Where do our bishops, G.Os and other preachers of today get their messages from?

The teaching that sowing into the lives of big bishops, General overseers or senior pastors will attract you blessing is anti-biblical. If the G.O or Senior pastor does not have basic need of food like Elijah, if he is not in need of accommodation like Elisha, and if he is not in need of basic materials or basic amenities like Apostle Paul, then your giving to him is baseless, useless and immaterial to God.

A pastor or bishop who has millions of dollars or his national currency laying fallow in his bank account, and you are adding to his money is simply a kingdom waste; a pastor or bishop who has a car and another for his wife, and you go to buy another car for him while nothing is wrong with the two cars he and his wife have, such giving is simply a spiritual ignorance and craving for shortcut blessing. A pastor or Bishop that has accommodation where he lives and you build or buy another house for him is a waste to the kingdom of God. When you ignore brethren in your local church, family members who have basic needs, singles who are trusting God to marry but no finance, unemployed brothers and sisters who need incentive to start something, missionaries in remove villages who need just little amount to reach people with the gospel, pastors in your village that just need basic amenities to sustain their ministries and home; when you ignore such people and you are sowing or partnership with a senior big pastor to maintain his luxurious amenities, to tour the world or to fuel his private jet, it simply means you are spiritually ignorant. Such sowing or partnership will only attract God's judgment. Do you know that one can give and have problem as a result of that giving when it is given in un-biblical way?

When you ignore people with genuine needs, with basic needs and you go ahead to give people with social needs or with comfort needs, it means you are either looking for human favor or you are looking for shortcut blessing of prophetic declaration from such big pastors. But the mistake here is that the whole popular and big ministers of the world can pray for you, they can make total prophetic declaration on you but they cannot answer the prayers by themselves, only God can answer prayer. God does not answer prayer by big names of a pastor or bishop but by the name of Jesus and based on our heart motives. Such senior pastors may psych you with different testimonies or prophecies, but you will never find a backing from the Bible.

TWO TYPES OF GIVING
(1) General Giving: General giving is giving to people generally around us: families, friends and foes. Giving to anybody in the society, to anyone who asks as long it will not aid or abet ungodly activity. We can also give to organizations or campaigns for good purposes in our societies.

(2) God's Giving: Giving in the name of God, for the sake of God, to God's works, to God's people or projects in the church or ministry. Only children of God who are genuinely saved can acceptably give for the sake of God.

GIVING IS A MUST
It is a must give, because it is God's command. Luke 6:38, "Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

It must be a continuous base in accordance to God's work. We must give when we have little and much as long as it is shareable. Luke 3:11, "He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Don't wait until you have a lot before you can give, don't wait until you are asked to give before you give. It is good to give surprisingly, that is, giving to people who do not expect from you and what they don't expect. Look around you as the Lord leads you, give; look among your family members, give; look around in your church, give; look in your workplace, give; look on along the road, give. When you give surprisingly, God also gives you surprise gift. "Give and it will be given to you." Luke 6:38.

WHY GIVING
As children of God, we should generously give, because:

(1) It's God’s command. Luke 6:38

(2) It's God's work. Without our giving, God's work will suffer lost. You may not be a full time minister of God, but you must fully minister to the needs of God's works and full time ministers. Philippians 4:18

(3) It's for heavenly treasure in God's kingdom. When you understand that every penny you give here on earth stores treasures for you in heaven, you will want to give more and more. If you are a child of God and waiting for the kingdom of God to come, you will not want to get to heaven with no treasure in store for you; you will want to save and store more in your heavenly home.

Matthew 6:19-21.“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(4) Giving brings earthly blessings. When you freely and generously give to people, to God's works and God's people, you will receive rewards in heaven and on earth.

Philippians 4:18, 19Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. 19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

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