A call from the prophet: I could sense that there are some of us here that were heavy weighted and want to give up. We easily give up because the word spoken into our lives has not come to pass. If the prophet says July and nothing is happening, do not give up. You could be the problem or it could be the misinterpretation of the prophet. God told Abraham 400 years but it took longer than that to redeem the Israelites.
There is a pastor that was told month of July and in that year it did not happen, but in the next year in the same month the word came to pass. So do not give up, your prophecy, vision or dream will come to pass.
Sermon – Giving and Receiving – By Steven Ssesanga
As we talk about giving and receiving, we are going to start with the scripture of John 3:16, one of the most common scriptures. In this scripture, God established the law of giving. He said that in order to redeem man, I need to give my only begotten Son. The question here is if God is eternal and with Him everything is possible, why then of all His ways did He send His only Son, in order to redeem mankind? When you read in Ephesians and Colossians, you’ll discover that Christ was pre-destined to die for us. This giving therefore started from the spiritual and we see it being manifested in the natural. Ephesians 1:9-11; When you gave your life to Christ, He gave you all things. God put ALL our inheritance in Christ. But the question is how do we receive and access this inheritance which is already in Christ because the scripture says that all things are in Him. We cannot receive anything from God unless we discover that all things are in Jesus.
When we talk about giving, it looks as if it is a work; something you have to do. Paul however says that by Grace we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8). Paul is saying grace, and eliminates works. James 2:17 says that faith by itself without works is dead. Now the essence is that grace leads you to salvation. After salvation you are in Christ and then when you are in Christ the works of the Spirit, coming from the spirit into the natural, perfect your faith. If my giving is led by the natural and my emotions, that giving will not have results. Building on works of the spirit and the natural, we need to remember that there is the canal man, the natural man who is a Christian but refused to grow and then there is the spiritual man. The scripture says the natural man does not understand the things of the spirit. When you tell him that he needs to give, it does not make sense to him. In reality, when a farmer is going to sow his seeds, in the natural it does not make sense, yet sowing is a natural thing. We do not understand how the seed begins growing. Paul tells us it is God that makes them grow (1 Corinthians 2:14). Paul told them that I cannot speak to you at your level, he had to come down into the natural. He was a man in the spirit but had to explain things to them in the natural so that they could understand. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; Paul here is trying to introduce and tell us how to access our inheritance.
If you move in the realm of the spirit, led by the Spirit of God, your works will stand and your giving will be multiplied. As Christians we need to understand that giving is governed in the spirit. The giving that will give you rewards is not governed by flesh but by the Spirit. It is the Spirit who multiplies. Ephesians 4 says he has given us the guarantee who is the Spirit and that spirit shall lead us to our salvation. So if we operate in the realm of the flesh, your works will be burned, and shall not produce fruit. Even when it looks like it is for God but is not inspired by the Spirit it shall not produce results. We need to ask ourselves what works we are talking about. When we come to salvation, God leads us to salvation by his grace and after we are saved, the Holy Spirit leads us to the works. Those works were not the works Paul was talking about when he said we were saved by faith but not by works. The works he meant were circumcision, works of the flesh. But if we want to access our inheritance, we need to be led by the Spirit. Another thing we are discovering is that giving is eternal. Revelation 16:7 - even in heaven there shall be an alter; giving shall be there. You remember also that Jesus said if you are going to give and remember that you have a problem with your brother, go back first and seek forgiveness. So giving is not only of the Old Testament. He establishes another principle that giving is spiritual.
Because if my giving is affected by un forgiveness, then my fruits shall be affected too. God is saying giving is good, but in the process of giving, do not allow anything of un-cleanliness to affect you. In the book of Acts 10:1, a scripture after the death of Christ, says that ‘your prayers’; here we learn that giving is not only in finances. Every time you pray you are giving, every time you use your faith you are giving. In the realm of the spirit there is an exchange. If you give positively, you receive positively. If you give negatively (in other words if you doubt) you receive the same way. When you use your faith, that God is that which he says He is, you are giving. Because all these acts affect the spiritual.. That is why scripture says God loves a cheerful giver. That joy affects the spiritual. All these are powerful in the sprit because we are spiritual beings. That is why even when we sleep God speaks to your spirit. When Cornelius gave his prayer and alms, God said that man is powerful, visit him. They visited a Gentile. He reversed the laws of the Jews. Once when I had escorted a friend to Fort Portal, I was called and told a man of God, a missionary had passed away. So I sent all the money I had to help in the burial arrangements.
I remained without a penny. But that night an angel of God visited me in a vision and my room was filled with that presence. I was not fasting or praying but the heavens felt we should visit that man. So giving affects the Spirit world so powerfully. Revelations 14:13; This shows us the difference between the grace of Jesus and the works of the Spirit. The scripture has clearly told us that if we walk in the natural and canal things, we do not get full benefits. The works which he said will follow them are the works of the Spirit because we saw that the works of the flesh were burnt by fire. You may have been doing the right thing but not led by the spirit. You’ve been struggling and even blaming the word of God; you need to check in which realm you were operating. The giving Jesus talks of in Luke 6:38 (good measure, pressed down, shaken together) that giving has to be led by the Spirit. If you are led by the Spirit, you shall see benefits very fast. I encourage you that the Lord we believe is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we have ever asked for. The scriptures continue to say, My God shall supply ALL (not some) my needs – that is the God that we believe. The Lord says let the weak say I am strong, and yet some teachings in the church say stay where you are you are a good Christian. But God says that is not enough – I want you to get all your inheritance. Let our giving be led by the Spirit and we receive our inheritance.