Be like the Man from Ball-Shalishah

In 2 Kings 4:42 to 44, the Bible says A man from the town of Baal-SHalishah brought Elisha some freshly cut grain and twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley that was harvested. Elisha said, "Give it to the people so that they can eat". "There's not enough here for a undred people", his servant said. "Just give it to them", Elisha replied. The Lord has promised there will be more than enough. So the servant served the bread and grain tot he people. They ate and still had some left over, just as the Lord had promised.

The Man from Baal-Shalishah brought his 1st fruit offering to the Man of God. At the time of bringing the offering, the man did not think that his offering could feed a hundred people. But the Man of God said give it to the people. Even when his servant warned him that the offering was not enough, he insisted that it must be given to the people. The Man of God, knew that the Lord had promised abundance, that is why he was so confident that the bread must be given to the people.

Its like many of you here, sometimes when you want to offer you think what you want to offer is is not good enough. You may think its not good enough for the house of God. Or its not good enough for the Man of God. But the Bible teaches us that what you think is not good enough, God can make it good enough. When you give freely in the house of God, God will multiply what you gave so that it overflows.

The Bible says they ate and still had some left overs, just as God had promised, meaning that God’s promise, that He shall give abundantly is true. But for you to experience the manifestation of that promise, you to need to take a step of faith. The man from Baal-Shalishah took a step of faith by giving his first fruits. He nevr knew that out of his gifts, there will be left overs.

I want to tell you today that if you take a step of faith and give with all you heart, you will also experience multiplication. What you have given will be multiplied back to you so much that you will even have left overs. If this year you didn’t give your first fruits, start planning in advance so that next year, when the year begins, you are able to give the 1st fruit.

Learn to pay your tithes before paying for anything else when you receive your salary. If you do that, you make God your number one priority. If God is your number one priority, you will also be His number one priority. When you pay your tithes, you will have peace. I was working and I was a single mother but I never struggled fiancially.

I know that its because I was always faithful with my tithes. I would even hear people who earn more than me complain about not having money, a few days after we got paid, people would start copmplaining. Some would not even be able to afford to go home. I was working in the Northern Cape, I could go home when ever I wanted, I could afford holidays and I could buy anything that I needed. Because I was faithful to God with my tithes.

I could not understand why I always had money when people who earned more than me could not afford. But I learnt that God’s ways are not our ways. His ways are not understandable. By that I want to encourage you to be faithful. Give your tithes, and continue to confess the promises of God for your life. You will find yourself able to move from one month end to another with money still in your bank account.

You will watch and see how people of the world complain about not having money. All because God is part of them, but not part of their finances. Make God part of your finance. Make Him a rock in your finance. You will see the fulfilment of His promises. If you used to live without paying tithes, the month when you start paying tithes, you will see the devil throwing attacks at you to discourage you. But remain faithful, continue to do good and pay your tithes.

Sometimes God allows that attack because He wants to see wether you are paying tithe because you love Him or wether you are paying tithe because you want to receive. If you pay tithe because you love God, and you undertsand that wether He blesses you or not, He is still God, you will see the manifestation of His promises in your life.

You will realise that God’s time is indeed the best time. At the time when you need your blessing the most, that is when He will release your blessing. Not when you want it. You might look at your life and think that “this is the time when I need blessings in my life”, but then God looks at you and sees that you are not ready yet to receive what He wants to give you.

Maybe in the physical you do need that blessing, but spiritually you are not ready to receive that blessing. Because if God releases your blessing at your own time it will make you to backslide. Sometimes God wants certain people to move away from you before He can release that blessing. Continue to do the right thing and wait for God’s time. Know that God looks at everything before He can release that blessing.

God doesn’t look only at the outward atmosphere, sometimes you are the one who delay your blessings. Because when God separates you from lot you still go back and look for Lot. That is what delays your blessing. Lets continue to do the right thing. Offering is not only about money, even your hands is an offering, whatever that you do for God, its an offering.

Don’t think that because you don’t have money, and you are not working, you cannot give. But rather work in the house of God. Sometimes all you need for God to clean your life is to clean the church. It doesn’t mean that when you clean the church you are low life. It means you know who God is in your life. Stop concetrating on the fact that you don’t have money so you cant give…that is just an excuse…you have hands, give with them.

Confess the promises of God in your life, they will never fail you. After confessing the promises of God, release a gift of faith, and God will multoply your gift.

To God be the Glory.