Part Four – Five Vital Signs of a Believer – Financial Giving
Five Vital Signs of a believer continued.
Below The 5 Vital signs of a Believer. .
1. Read and study the Word of God
2. Praying and speaking in Tongues
3. Fellowshipping with Like Minded believers
4. Financial Giving
5. Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ (witnessing)
We have looked at the first three vital signs and we can see each vital sign is like a building block, not only are we building Gods word in our hearts and mind, but we begin to practically live the truth of the word of God, in our daily living, when we do this we are proving to ourselves what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God by being transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Roman 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
God is the biggest giver, and He loves us so much, that He gave his one and only son that
whosoever should believe on His son should not perish but have ever lasting life.
Jesus Christ also gave Himself by being obedient to the death cross, he laid down his life for
us.
John 3:16 (KJV) 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 10:15 (KJV) 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
God encourages each of His child to follow His example. and also His son and our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let us take a look and see what God, says in His word.
Ephesians 5:1-4 (KJV) 1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
The word followers mean (imitator) of God as dear children, now after we became born
again we received the spirit of God, which is called Christ in you the hope of glory,
(Colossians 1:27) and we are sons of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ and God is our
Father. Like any child growing up in family the child will imitate what the father does
especially boys. we see God is love and God is a giver, not only did He give us son ship and
eternal life through believing on His son, but He has given his nature and we have His
spiritual DNA, so to speak in Us. and God wants us to be giving for example Our heavenly
Father wants us to follow the example of our Lord Jesus who was living sacrifice.
Roman 12:1 (KJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
God wants us to live unto and not for ourselves in other words now we are born again
and have the spirit of God, it is not about us no more it is about living unto God what we can
do for God as living sacrifice, and serving by serving others the word God, not just by
speaking it but also by living by the word of God.
2 Corinthians 5:15 (KJV) And that he (Jesus) died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which
died for them, and rose again.
That is an example of imitating God by walking in His love and following the living example
of Jesus Christ, when he walked this earth. Now God knows what is good for us and when
we follow his direction for our life we will be blessed and prosperous in many ways. God wants us to
benefit from His goodness which is our in Christ Jesus, He has made everything available to
us but we have to appropriate the promise of God to us, we have to believe God and trust
Him, that what He has promised in His word to us, He will perform, as we believe His word to us
and act upon it. Just like Abraham did.
Romans 4:20 (KJV) He (Abraham) staggered (in His mind) not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Abraham was strong in believing what God had promised and we know from Numbers 23:19
that God is not a man that He should lie.
When God says something or promise something and we believe Him, then God will bring it to pass, God watches over His to perform it. God wants us to give of our resources and our time, and talents and ability and He want us to use our talents and ability for the body of Christ and one of the biggest resources we can and should give is in the area of our finances.
Ministers in the body of Christ, need to have their needs met as they labour in the word and prayer, giving of their time to serve God, by being free to serve others, teaching and encouraging, ministering to others need, and at times they may need to travel to another area’s and Countries or counties where this is need to minister to others, this takes time away from their families, it also means they are away from the local people that they minister too and it also takes time and money to travel. God needs men and women free to do His work and if the ministers are not taken care of then they have to go to local work, to feed themselves and their family, but it also means they have less time to give themselves to God’s word and prayer and ministering to the believers. So we can see there is a need for us to give. and God shows us how to do it from His word with the right heart out of love to God, because that is who we are giving too when we give.
Galatians 6:6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
the word communicate in this verse mean to share or distribute and we are to share or
distribute to those that teach us in all good things, which is the word of God. We can see in Philippians what Paul had to say.
International Standard Version
Philippians 4:15 You Philippians also know that in the early days of the
gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church participated (shared) with
me in the matter of giving and receiving except for you.
Philippians 4:16 Even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my
needs not once, but twice.
Philippians 4:17 It is not that I am looking for a gift. No, I want to see
that you receive the fruit that increases to your benefit.
Philippians 4:18 I have been paid in full and have more than enough.
I am fully supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus
what you sent—a fragrant aroma, a sacrifice acceptable and
pleasing to God.
Philippians 4:19 And my God will fully supply your every need according to his glorious riches in the Messiah Jesus.
The believers that shared with Paul, was the Philippians Believers, Pauls was saying I was
not looking for a gift but his heart was to see that through their giving that fruits abounds to
them, Paul knew that God would bless them through them giving to Paul, They were honouring God by
giving to Gods minister who had need. Paul had a right to live of the gospel He was teaching,
but by looking at other records in the Word of God. Paul never made demands on the believers. Let see Pauls heart in 1 Thessalonians.
International Standard Version
1Thessalonians 2:3 For our appeal to you does not spring from deceit, impure motives, or
trickery.
1Thessalonians 2:4 Rather, because we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, we speak as we do, not trying to please people but God, who tests our motives.
1Thessalonians 2:5 As you know, we did not come with flattering words or with a scheme to make money. God is our witness!
1Thessalonians 2:6 We did not seek praise from people—from you or from anyone else—
1Thessalonians 2:7 even though as apostles of the Messiah we might have made such demands. Instead, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother tenderly caring for her
own children.
1Thessalonians 2:8 We cared so deeply for you that we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but our very lives. That is how dear you were to us.
1Thessalonians 2:9 Brothers, you remember our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you.
1Thessalonians 2:10 You and God are witnesses of how pure, honest, and blameless our conduct was among you who believe.
1Thessalonians 2:11 You know very well that we treated each of you the way a father treats his children.
1Thessalonians 2:12 We comforted and encouraged you, urging you to live in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
1Thessalonians 2:13 Here is another reason why we constantly give thanks to God: When you received God’s word, which you heard from us, you did not accept it as the word of
humans but for what it really is—the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
These wonderful Apostle Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, hearts were to build up the believers here and encourage them, their hearts were pure they were not trying to trick people out of their money by wrong motives or deceit they did not use flattering words or any type of scheme to make money, they did not want any pats on the back from people for what God had called them to do.
Paul points out to them look we could have made demand of you as apostles, instead we were gentle we did not want to be burden to you. But see here they wanted to be gentle, showing them the love of God. Verse 9 show us they work with their own hands so they were not a burden and so that they could give them the word of God. and these believers would received that word, so we see the hearts of the minister here, the biggest need for them was to get the word to these believers. And that should be the passion and drive of all ministers, whatever it takes but we should also recognise that Gods “minsters” need to be taken care of and that is why it is good to give. It is good to see these points here in this record to see what the hearts of minister is, if their hearts is to serve God by feeding the believers God’s word, from a pure heart of love then why would we as believers not support ministers like them, in the work that God has called them too?
Let us take a brief look at the benefit the believer receive from God when they give to
God by giving to the minister that teaches in all God things
International Standard Version
2Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
2Corinthians 9:7 Each of you must give what you have decided in your heart, not with regret
or under compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.
2Corinthians 9:8 Besides, God is able to make every blessing of yours overflow for you, so
that in every situation you will always have all you need for any good work.
2Corinthians 9:9 As it is written, “He scatters everywhere and gives to the poor; his
righteousness lasts forever.”
2Corinthians 9:10 Now he who supplies seed to the farmer and bread to eat will also supply
you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest that results from your righteousness.
2Corinthians 9:11 In every way you will grow richer and become even more generous, and
this will cause others to give thanks to God because of us
2Corinthians 9:12 because this ministry you render is not only fully supplying the needs of
the saints, it is also overflowing with more and more prayers of thanksgiving to God.
2Corinthians 9:13 Because your service in giving proves your love, you will be glorifying
God as you obey what your confession of the Messiah’s gospel demands, since you are
generous in sharing with them and with everyone else.
2Corinthians 9:14 And so in their prayers for you they will long for you because of God’s
exceptional grace that was shown to you.
2Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Here we see great benefit in giving the benefit’s of the one giving and need for the ministers to
be taken care of and the body of Christ.
God is showing that when we sow (give) we should do it generously so we can receive from
Him generously. God is also showing if we give sparingly (stingily) we will reap sparingly
(stingily) God does not want you to give out of your need because He wants you to be blessed
and happy when you give, God wants you to give with a happy heart. because when we are
giving we are giving unto God. we have only looked at a small part about giving. but from what i have written
you can see that God wants you to give and that you the giver benefit’s by doing this and we have
also seen the need to give and why, and the hearts of the giver and the hearts of the ministers
who received the gifts given.
I will leave you some verse you can look up to see the heart that God wants us to give.
Luke 6:38 – Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Deuteronomy 16:17
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.
1 Chronicles 29:9
Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart, and King David also rejoiced greatly.
Proverbs 3:27
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
Proverbs 11:24-25 – There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and [there is] that withholdeth more than is meet, but [it tendeth] to poverty.
Hebrews 13:16 – But to do good and to communicate (share) forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
In 1 Chronicles 29:9 the people rejoiced because
1) when they gave they done it willingly.
2) when they gave there offering it was to the Lord.
3) it was done with their whole heart.
God bless you Laurence Torr
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Beautiful blog Laurence. Give vital signs are so important thanks for the great help and more understanding! God bless you. Lots of love xx
Sorry meant to say five vital signs. But giving is good ha!xx
Thank you brother for putting this wonderful sharing in writting. The Word of God is truth and whole and Perfect. God has a clear purpose in saying that.
Thank you , loved Thess..2……wow ! Standard Version fabulous !
Thank you for putting all this together !
Much love brother !
X
Adrienne