What/Who Do You Have?

1 Timothy 6:18 "Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,"

This writing is not to pressurise you to feel guilty so you will give to people who are in need (and I myself am in a learning process too), but to make us all realise about what we have in an excited manner. We cannot give things we don't have, we only can give from what we have. And we cannot give generously when we don't have it in abundant.

The verse before that explains the reason/root that "let them do good", 1 Timothy 6:17 "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

"Trust in the living God, who gives us richly (not skimpily) all things to enjoy" 

When we lose sight of this truth (as in the world wants us to see God as not as a generous person & He doesn't want us to enjoy all things - this is why the first sentence the serpent told Eve in Genesis 3:1 “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”, and this is certainly the opposite of what the generous God told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17 “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”) we cannot give to others, let alone being an excited generous giver. 

(ESV) 2 Corinthians 9:6  The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver

So we need revelation (not out of compulsion) to make us believe that it's so fun be a cheerful giver.

Question to ponder : Is it you or God who decide how much you want to give out of what you have (from the Lord)?

Answer : It's you, not God. At the same time, yes, the Lord reveals & inspires you to know how He's been blessing you abundantly (and we are all in this learning journey). You decide out of your will - the sovereign God has given you the authority for you to exercise, He didn't create you a robot. 

But how come when it comes to divine life & healing we have a mental picture that it's God who decides? In the covenant (after Jesus' redemption) He has given all believers authority & power to execute His wills on earth as it is in heaven (the Lord's prayer). Yes, during His ministry on earth He authorised His disciples. 

Matthew 10:1 "And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease"

Matthew 10:8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."And the Lord also taught His disciples about the key of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 16:19 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” in which many christians believe that only the apostle Peter has those keys as that verse is what Jesus spoke to him. But the truth is the Lord gave those keys to Peter because in that context Peter confessed that "Jesus is the Christ & the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).

Side note : Have you confessed that "Jesus is the Christ & the Son of the living God"? - if yes, you have those key too. The problem is when you don't know/don't believe what you have, you won't use it - in the same way that you only can give out of what you have.

Now the new covenant's reality : Christ is in (Colossians 1:27) - this is through the Holy Spirit Who dwells in the believers. The union of man & God can happen as Christ has redeemed us from all our sins, or else God wouldn't be able to be one with man. 

Now if you think that the Lord's authority was only given to His disciples, you're not updated yet. In the "great commission" before the Lord ascended to heaven He told His disciples & believers who were with Him to make all nations His disciples, and teach them all things they had learned ("all things" or "some things"? Is Matthew 10:1 & 8 included?)

Matthew 28:18-20 "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore (it means because Jesus has all the authority, now He commissioned them - "go therefore") and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”. 

Mark 16:17-18 "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

So if we have Christ in us (unless you don't have Christ yet), and He's given us authority & power, why do we still think healing is up to Him? This is not a form of humility, this is unbelief, this is fear - and a lot of christians have been living in this denial. 

You don't call the power (electricity) company in your town to flow the electricity so that you can turn on your TV, and if you find no change you start begging & spamming that company as if they don't supply you. You need to know that the company has authorised & supplied you the electricity, it's up to you when you want to turn on the TV. Just press the remote, make sure that the power switch is on - you turn it on at your will when you want it to be on.

Look at what Peter had that he could give it to someone who was in need :

Acts 3:3-7 "... who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 

Personal side note :

When Peter said "Silver & gold I do not have" please don't interpret in an extreme way saying that he was poor, it's just he's got a habit not to bring the cash on those days (imagine we didn't bring cash, but we bring card/s). 

Back to Acts 3:3-7 - What/Who did Peter have that he could give others? Do you have what he had? If you have what he had you can give it generously too. 

This story is so powerful, some might think why didn't Peter suggest the paralytic to go for natural therapy as he could have believed that God uses therapy to heal, then he did a fund raising/charity in his fellowship/temple to support him? If the book of Acts as the beginning of the work of Holy Spirit already tells us of many miracles stories, how much more now He actually wants to partner with us to do greater work as Jesus mentioned in John 14:12?

From time to time we've been living by sight instead of by faith. We conclude the truth of life by our experiences (success & failure), our carnal perception, our emotional state, but not from God's word. We build up theology by using our natural lens to interpret Bible. This is not right. Even those great apostles interpreted Jesus wrongly as they used their "lens of lack". 

Matthew 16:6-7 : Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven”. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.” - we all are in the learning journey to build our trust in what He said, what His will revealed through His word. Don't make "life-logy or theology" out of our self-failure or self-perception. 

How many christian interpret God's word in 2 Corinthians 12:9 as God didn't help Paul?

2 Corinthians 12:8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

There's a teaching that interpret "sufficient" as God didn't want to help Paul, they thought it's like when we refuse to give extra money to a beggar we said, "My donation is "sufficient" for you" - aka : "I don't want to give extra". It means we use our own "carnal lens" to interpret God's word, while when the Lord says "My grace is sufficient" it means Paul was the one who needed to realise that, he didn't need to beg the Lord 3x by his prayers, he just needed to realised that God's grace that has been given to him is sufficient to solve his problem, he didn't need to depend on his own natural strength/resources. 

And we know that the Lord is a generous God with His supply, when He said "sufficient" it means His supply is greater than the demand - see His compassion expressed in the way He fed more than 5000 people with 2 fish & 5 loaves, and how much is the leftover? And 4000 people plus with 7 loaves, how much is the left over? 

That's how the Lord fix the mind of Lois disciples when they thought "the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees" were about bread.

Even those great apostles, they grew their faith - they learn to know who they were, what they had, and all things about life not buy what they felt or they perceived, but by what God said. Same as us now, how do you know what do you have? By feeling it or by trusting what God said. You are who your feeling tells you or who the Lord says about you? Identity is very important, we cannot just genuinely feeling like chicken & identify ourselves as chicken.

Matthew 16:8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9 Do you not yet UNDERSTAND, or REMEMBER the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? 11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Could it be that our wrong mindset is the reason we couldn't agree with God's will for miracles? It's like the switch that we never turn on to let the electricity flow to our TV, yet all along we thought it's the sovereignty & the mercy of the power company - and we fight so much someone with the message that saying "you're qualified by the blood of Jesus, you're well supplied" as heretic?

Galatians 3:5 "Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"

It's a question to ourselves, what message have we been hearing? Is it something that feed or faith in trusting the goodness of God, or the other way around? When you are in Peter position, walking on water, do you want to believe in the strength of Jesus' word or you believe that your circumstances is greater than Jesus' word? What is your faith telling you?

It is the enemy who wants christians to have no faith in their walk with the Lord, he wants to keep christians powerless, in this kind of unbiblical teaching has been around for a long time. He doesn't like it when you know what God has given you, he uses a lot of your feeling & experience to manipulate you & keep you under his control until you don't see the truth of God's word in front of you. 

Learn about who you are in Christ (no longer who you are in yourself), though your spirit is already born again you need to renew your mind with His word so you won't be be like the world, and with this you can prove His good, acceptable & perfect will. (Romans 12:2) - it's not a one day transformation, it's a journey that needs to be nurtured as lifestyle. We've got to start from somewhere.

2 Corinthians 10:3 : For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (the natural/worldly old beliefs that have been growing with us consciously or unconsciously), 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ

Bible teaches us that faith is not only about "a ticket to go to heaven", but it's to see the unseen reality, to agree with His will revealed through His word in the midst of contrary seen situation - it doesn't mean that there are no contrary situations created by the enemy in this side of heaven (still on earth). We are not called just to accept any situation presented to us but by faith we are called to accept what Jesus' done for us even in the contrary situations.

I hope you are blessed not by my opinion, but by God's words I'm sharing. 

Jesus bless you,

Daniel Purnomo