Give what is precious to you
In Luke 1:26 to 36, we read about the time that God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, the mother of Jesus. At the time, Mary was engaged to Joseph. When the Angel greeted Mary, he told her that she is truly blessed and God was pleased with her. The angel told Mary that she will have a Son and she must name him Jesus.
At this time, Mary was still a virgin. She could have easily said to the angel, “no I want to keep my virginity so that I can give it to my husband”. But because Mary understood the principles of giving, she gave the best offering to the Kingdom of God. She gave something very precious to her, which is her virginity. After this, she became blessed and gave birth to the saviour of the whole world.
Many of you want to be truly blessed by God but you don’t give in the house of God. When you give, you give what you don’t want. Mary’s gift encourages us as the children of God, to give things which are precious in our lives. For you to receive, you need to give what you love and not the things you don’t need. But you can only do that if you have the Holy Spirit in you. You can only give what you love if you listen to the voice of God and abide in it. You can only do that if you understand the promises in the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit tells some of us to give 10% of your salary, or to give some your precious possessions in your lives, but because you love your money or your possessions more than God, you are holding on to it. Not knowing that by giving you would be opening up a door of greater things than what you have. The problem with us is because we like to hold on to the things we want, not realising that God wants to give us the things we need. We should not hold on to things we want and which are not necessarily what we need.
When you are holding on to that you are closing the space to what you really need. You need to give away the things that you want, so that God can provide you with the things that you need. When God brings the things that you need in your life, you will begin to experience joy. When you have things that you want, you cannot experience joy and happiness in your life because those are the thing that you don’t need. For you to experience the peace and the joy of God, you have to have the things that you need which can only be provided by God.
As children of God, we should give God the best and we should give what is precious to us so that God can be pleased with us. We should not only give in monetary terms, but our precious possessions like clothes, food and even our hands or labour to the house of God. Any gift that is given with a pure heart will please God.
Marry became blessed when she gave birth to Jesus because the Word of God was fulfilled. This was the best blessing that Mary could have ever had. If she had not given her precious virginity, she would have not given birth to the Saviour of the whole world. So we also need to understand that withholding our precious gifts from God can also cost us the best blessing of our lives.
The Bible tells us that for Mary to become pregnant, the Holy Spirit fell upon her. This teaches us without the Holy Spirit, it would be difficult for us to understand the concept of giving. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot give a precious gift. The Holy Spirit is a the One who suggests in our lives. He is the one whom God speaks to us through. Just as God spoke to Mary with His Angel, God speaks to use through the Holy Spirit. Therefore you need the Holy Spirit to understand the power of giving. You need divine intervention in your life to give up your precious possession.
Mary confessed the will of God to happen in her life. Her confession demonstrates that your mouth is a weapon. Therefore, whatever you declare with your own mouth shall come to pass. Whatever that you declare, you don’t look at the circumstances or situations, but you declare it looking at the Word of God.
The Word of God says that He has given us the ability to create wealth.
When you are facing that poverty and famine, you speak the Word of God. When your car is about to be repossessed, and when you are over indebted, you speak the Word of God upon your life. You confess with your mouth and you declare that God has given you the ability to create wealth. This means that wealth can be created but with the ability which comes only from God.
God is expecting us to use the wealth He has given to us to do His work. But if you withhold that wealth and keep it unto you, you have big questions to answer to in the eternal life. Some of us will answer while still living in this life. You will see your possessions disappearing and that would be because you are not using God’s wealth the way that He wants you to use it. This will happen until you repent and turn to God, asking Him to help you exercise His will over your wealth.
As you give this morning, listen to the Holy Spirit. Be like the mother of Jesus and agree to the command of God. Test God and see if He is alive. He said “test me and see if I can’t open the windows of heaven and pour out the blessings that you will not have room to store them. (Malachi 3:10). When you test God with your finances, you will not be disappointed.
To God be the Glory.