Ecclesiastes 9:10 says: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart.”
When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, he said: “I’ve given everything. What am I missing?”
He hadn’t given everything, though. Jesus put his finger on the one thing he held back. “One thing you lack,” Jesus said. “Give all you have to the poor and follow Me.”
The rich young ruler had done all of that. But he couldn’t give everything. Despite all he had done, he missed out on the biggest thing of all. He missed the Kingdom of God.
Why give everything? Because then you get everything!
A family took in a group of people that they believed were sent from God. They fed them, gave them beds, and let them stay. These people were sent from God, and the family was blessed enormously because of their giving.
It was a lot like the couple that gave Elijah a room in the Old Testament or other people in the Bible who opened up their homes.
However, this family’s blessing was limited, because their giving was limited.
They specified that only ten of those people could stay. “We really don’t feel like having TOO many people in our home,” they explained.
However, I witnessed how the people they didn’t allow in their homes were the ones who God could’ve used to bless them the most. Those were the most anointed, the most powerful God could’ve used in their life.
Nobody was offended, and it was wholly within their prerogative to do so.
But I watched how the family robbed themselves of the greatest blessing. Why?
They couldn’t give their whole heart.
Awhile back, I was going through personal stuff. I felt I was facing mountains.
At the same time, my friend was facing mountains. He was working on a big project. He hadn’t asked me, but I knew he needed help.
“I don’t want to,” I said. “Haven’t I done enough?”
But God wouldn’t let up.
Finally, I bowed before God’s prompting. I went and started taping off lines so my friend could start painting his skid steer. My friend admitted he badly needed help but felt weird about asking.
As I helped my friend, my choice to give my heart gave God access to help me. When I was done working with him, my inner mountains were gone. God had set me free.
What do you hold back?
It can be small or big. God only knows. Jesus said the widow with the two mites “gave more” then all the men with their riches. Why? Because she gave it all.
Writing this, the Lord is quickening me something I heard years ago.
“What does holy mean?” someone said.
“Revelations 4:8 speaks about how, in heaven, they continuously say: ‘holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.’ But what does holy mean?”
“Holy means ‘wholly’,” this person said. “They are ‘wholly’ there, ‘wholly’ willing to care for us, ‘wholly’ Lord God Almighty.”
As we become more Christ-like, we become more and more “wholly”--whole-hearted.
I love the movie, “Limitless”. We all long to be fully alive and present, using 100% of our potential. However, I am convinced that we cannot find that without help.
This miracle made me weep when I heard it:
In the 1950s, a woman traveled hundreds of miles, across state lines, for healing for her four-year-old boy with 26 diseases. Meeting after meeting she sat through, waiting for her boy to be prayed for, but nothing happened.
She spent her money on hotels, restaurants and offerings in the service until she barely had enough money to go home, only $20.
But that night at the last service, she gave that final $20.
It wasn’t about the money or the offering.
It was about her giving it all.
Like the widow in the Bible, this mother of the stricken boy gave her all, her two mites, not to the minister, but to God.
Because that mother gave it all, God gave her all.
The power of God fell like a thunderclap.
Thousands witnessed this boy‘s healing, which ranged from God giving this blind, deaf, dumb, mangled, footless boy eyes, hearing, speech, and even new feet which creatively formed right in front of an astonished congregation.
That was just for starters.
Then everyone in the audience was healed as well.
In other words, not only did this woman get it all.
Everyone in the vicinity was changed by God’s supernatural downpour of a blessing, Releasing her “all”, her two mites, forever impacted every life in the service. Everyone was transformed by that simple act of how one woman got out of God’s way and let Him move that night.
At the end of the service, people came up to the mother to thank her for her heart, and she was surprised to find $20 bills in their hands. She ended up with $500.
“Isn’t that just like Jesus?” She said. “God let me stay in that hotel, eat all that food, and attend all those services, and at the end, God gave me 26 miracles and sent me back with more money than I came with.”
Can you imagine if she would’ve left before it happened?
What would have happened if, like any logical person, she held back her final $20?
What you hold back today, it doesn’t limit God. It limits you.
I want to receive it all!
No comments:
Post a Comment