"God so loved the world that
He gave....."
John 3:16
As I live in the Father's house feasting at His table and learning His ways, waiting upon His perfect timing of
His blessing and grant,
there were some truths that I needed to grow in so that I could live
the life and be the conduit of blessing that God desired of me. An area
that the Father was working with me on was my giving and my learning to
trust Him so that I could be the generous and committed giver that would
honor and glorify Him. He had been teaching me good stewardship and
management, but He was wanting to stretch me into a new level of giving
and blessing. He wanted me trusting Him that when I gave He would give
back to me even more so that I could continue to flow in this generosity
that He had placed in me. He was teaching me His principle of
The Law of Resupply,
and that I first needed to empty "the gift card" before He would
resupply it. There were promises that the Father had me feed on and get
into my spirit, so I would understand and walk in confidence in this
area of giving. He was making me a Sower, sowing seeds of blessings,
financially and spiritually. He said in His Word that He loved "a
cheerful giver" and that He would supply seed to the sower and bread for
food, and that He would supply and multiply my seed for sowing and
increase the fruits of my righteousness. He said that He would cause all
grace to abound to me that having sufficiency in all things that I
would have an abundance for every good work, and that He would make me
rich in every way so that I could be generous at every occasion, and
that through my generosity it would cause others to give thanksgiving to
God. (2 Cor 9:7,8,10,11) I needed to get this in my heart and spirit
and trust Him to supply and bless me as I gave cheerfully and generously
at His leading. Sometimes my budget didn't show the abundance supply
for that giving, but as He brought needs into my path, He encouraged me
and stretched me to trust Him that as I gave to that need that He would
take care of the budget and meet my needs as well, learning that I
couldn't out give God. He said, "
Trust in the Lord with all of your
heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." (Prov 3:5-6) So I was determined that I was going to trust Him.
I
had received revelation that there was no lack in my house, because in
the Spirit I lived and dwelt in the Father's house in heaven, and I knew
that there was no lack in His house, but that there was an unlimited
supply of wealth and resources to draw from as His child living in His
house. So I began to put this revelation to the test and give with
increased faith in the Father and His promises and the Principle of
Resupply. He said, "
Give, and it will be given to you; good measure,
pressed down, shaken together and running over, they will pour into your
lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in
return." (Luke 6:38) He said, Ask, seek and knock, "
Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
(Matt 7:7) So I decided I was going to give, and I was going ask, seek
and knock on the door of His heart, trusting Him to resupply my "gift
card" so that I could continue to give as He was leading my heart to
give, and that as I gave I would watch Him resupply. The Father also
impressed on me that as I gave to lift up my seed to Him and ask Him to
multiply it like He did with Jesus and the loaves and the fishes,
stretching it supernaturally and making it go supernaturally further than
it ever would be able to go in the natural. So I began to do this. I
wanted to truly partner with a supernatural God to do supernatural
things and see Him glorified through my giving and faith in a
supernatural way. The Father gave me opportunities, and I committed to
Him and to myself to take them and give Him the opportunity to show up
and show off. So as I did, He did......my Father was faithful
and began to show me that His Word was true and that I could trust Him
as I stepped out of the boat and onto the water. I honestly blew the
budget and just gave as the need arose and as He impressed on me to
give, seeding something into each opportunity. And with each step of
obedience my faith grew stronger.
One of my first
opportunities came as our budget got really squeezed to make room for a
car payment for a new/used car as my husband's car got wrecked in a car
accident that weekend. (Praise God he wasn't hurt) My husband's car
being almost 20 yrs old was ready for its eternal rest. He had been
resuscitating it for years determined not have a car payment, but now we
knew it was time we were going to have to put it to rest and replace
it. So we squeezed our already tight budget and made a way to make it
possible and then together said "Let's go". Bless the
Lord....immediately after this decision is when several pressing
financial needs came across my path from others. I said, "Ok, Lord, this
seems like the best time to put Your promises to the test, so let's do
this. I will give, and You take care of the budget. You said You would
get it to me if You could get it through me. So I am going to make a way
so You to get it through me. I am going to send these seeds off in
faith, asking and trusting that You will bless them and multiply them
and resupply them so I can not only take care of their needs, but that I
can take care of our needs as well."
Well before He had time to
resupply I begin to think about something.......I said, "Lord, I would
much rather give this money that's going out for this car payment to
others in need rather than make payments to the bank, in fact if we were
debt-free and didn't have any loans or debts payments to pay on each
month, think of how many people we could help with that money". So
having taken this to the Lord and truly receiving the heart of the Lord
on it, I went to the Father to petition Him. I said, "Father, I come
boldly to Your throne of grace to receive mercy and to obtain grace in
my time of need. Father, You said, 'Ask and you shall receive. Seek and
you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.' So, I have come to
ask, seek and knock. Father, I have come to You to ask for a blessing,
for Your Anointing, for a portion of my inheritance. Father, You are
LOVE, and You so loved the world that You gave Your most precious
possession, Your only Son Jesus, to save the world, to bring everyone
that would believe in Him back into right relationship with You again.
And Father, as I have received Jesus and given my life to Him, He has
lived His life through me through His Holy Spirit, changing my heart,
teaching me His ways and changing me into His image, and I now share
Your heart of love for this world as well. Father, Your heart of love
for others is in me, and it's my desire to help them, to see them set
free from the bondages of this world, to see them free from debt and
living lives that glorify You and that are free to help others
themselves. Father, I want to plant seeds in people and move mountains. I
want You to live BIG in me! So, Father, I lift up this debt of mine to
You, these loans and credit card debts that we have accumulated, and I
ask You to bless them and wipe them away, blessing us with debt freedom
so that we can be a blessing to others, and so that we can help them
know and experience Your love as they come and live in Your house and
receive the benefits of their inheritance as children of God. Father, I
ask that You release a portion of my inheritance to me and guide me in
helping others to be free from debt and be a good steward in their
giving and financial management. I ask You to anoint me to be a channel
of Your blessing and an expression of Your heart of love and mercy to
this desperate world. Father, this world is in such dire need of seeing
the power and love of a gracious and forgiving God that loves them. So,
Father, here is my debt.....I lift it up to You. Everything that is mine
is Yours, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I ask for an exchange
for all that is Yours to bless all that is mine, so that all that I have
may glorify You and advance Your Kingdom. I thank You, Father, for the
supernatural power of Your love and grace. I thank You for loving me,
for redeeming me and for bringing me into Your house to live as a
daughter of the Most High God. I thank You for using me to flow Your
life and love through and for taking this broken and imperfect vessel
and using it to make a difference in this world. Thank You, Father, for
Your love, Your grace, Your faithfulness and Your Anointing. And Father,
I ask all of this in the Name of Your Son, Jesus."
As
the Father listened to my petition He smiled. And when I was finished He
took my hand and He led me into another room. It was a Board room, a
room with a large executive table with many chairs around it. We sat
down together and He began to pour out His heart to me. He said that He
had been waiting for this day, that He had created me for this purpose
and prepared me for this time so that He may work this work through me.
He said it truly was His desire and heart to see His children free from
their debt, to see them living in the freedom and inheritance that was
theirs as His children. He said He wanted to set up a family business,
to channel His blessings and inheritance to His children and show them
His love and mercy and the grace that His Son Jesus purchased for them.
He said we would do this together, that if I would just listen to His
voice and stay close to His heart that He would guide and navigate me
through each step and that I would not have to worry about anything,
because it would be a work and business that we would do TOGETHER as a
family. He would supply all that I needed to carry out its success, the
wisdom, the finances, the help and support, and anything and everything
that I needed along the way, and all I would have to do was come to Him
and ask and He would help me........Wow....I was blown away. The things
that the Father was speaking to me were things that He had placed in my
heart and spirit years ago, and now He was telling me it was time to do
them.....I was speechless and felt very inadequate, but inside my spirit
was saying "Yes, I'm ready! Let's do it!" So looking to Him I said,
"Thank You, Father, for this assignment and for this privilege to serve
You in the Kingdom. I receive it and step into it through the power of
Your Son Jesus. Together we will be about the Father's Family Business
and see many lives changed and brought into the Kingdom." I took the
Father's hand and He squeezed mine and released His power and Anointing
to do this work, and He said, "I am giving you the ability to create
wealth so that I may establish My covenant in you." We embraced, and I
felt His heart of love, and then we walked back into the banqueting hall
together where He invited me to sit beside Him as He sat down on His
throne of grace.
Wow....what an experience.....amazing grace.
The
next day someone asked me out of the blue, "Connie, what do you want?"
But the person went on to something else before I even had a chance to
answer, which was good, because I'm not sure I had an answer for him
right then. But the question made me really think about what I DID want.
As I spent some time in thought and prayer on that question later, many
things raced through my mind, especially concerning my family and children with the many desires and prayer petitions that I had in
my heart and had desired to see God do, but knowing that if I would "seek first the kingdom of God, all these things would be added" to me. So my answer was: I wanted to
fulfill the assignment that the Father had spoken to me. I wanted to
fulfill my destiny. I wanted the power and Anointing of God to destroy
debt and release prosperity into the hands of His Bride. I wanted to
move mountains. I wanted to change people's lives by the power of God's
love and the supernatural increase that results from the release of that
Anointing and my giving. That's what I wanted and that's what I had
asked the Father for. (The thing is, He knew my heart and He knew my
thoughts already for He had made me for this before I was even born. Ps 139:1-16)
So at night
before I went to bed and in the morning when I woke up, I began to lay
my hands upon our bills and our debt and pray in the Spirit releasing
the river of God on the inside of me to flow over them. "Everywhere that
the river goes shall live." (Ez 47:9) I was releasing the power of the
Holy Spirit to heal our finances, to bring life to them and cause them
to prosper. I was releasing the supernatural power of God through the
power of His Holy Spirit. My eyes were on the Father as I received the
Anointing by faith and as I looked to Him for the manifestation of His
power and miracle upon our finances, thanking Him for His love and His
mercy and grace and for His kingdom coming into our finances drawing upon the truth and revelation that 2000
years ago Jesus took our debt and all the decrees that were hostile
against us and He nailed them to the cross, paying our debt and
disarming rulers and authorities, and He made a public display out of
them as He triumphed over them at the cross. (Col 2:14,15) As I prayed
in the Spirit His kingdom and this manifestation was being released over
our finances.
A few nights later as the river of God
was flowing and I was having a wonderful prayer time praying in my
understanding and in the Spirit, Jesus walked into my prayer time, and
He said, "Connie, it's not you living anymore, it's Me, Jesus, living
in and through you. I am living in you and through you and in everything
you do." And He proceeded to tell me what He was going to be doing
through me. He said, "I'm going to heal through you. I'm going to break
yokes and chains and addictions through you. I'm going to open blind
eyes and deaf ears through you. I'm going to cause the lame to walk and
the dead to rise and live again through you. I'm going to break debt and
release prosperity through you.' Then He took my bills and debt that I
had listed and totaled and bundled together that was laying there on
the table, and He said, "Connie, I took these to the cross with Me 2000
years ago, and I paid for them in full with My life and with My blood. I
atoned for them." He held them up to His heart and chest and said, "I
took from you what you deserved and I gave you mercy. In exchange for
them I gave you debt-freedom and prosperity." And He flipped the bundle
over and wrote PROSPERITY and DEBT FREEDOM on the back of it. Then He
said, "See it tonight and receive it. It's yours."
It became
reality to me that night. His tangible presence and anointing was there.
I saw clearly what Jesus had done for me. He had given me mercy and
released grace. He took and withheld what I deserved, which was being
yoked with the weight of debt and working a lifetime paying it off, and
He gave me mercy and grace, which I didn't deserve. He blessed me with
the grace of Debt Freedom and Prosperity. It was mine right then. I just
needed to receive it and take it by faith.
So I did. I took it,
receiving it by faith and began thanking Him for it and living in the
reality of it, first in the reality that it was not I that was living
anymore, but that it was Jesus that was living in and through me, that
He had taken my life and all that it included (the good, the bad, and
the ugly), and He had given me a new, redeemed, born-again, life of
freedom in and through Him. THAT was something to celebrate right there.
I
tucked the bundle of bills and debt back into my notebook, continuing to pay on them as they were due, and during
my prayer times in the days ahead I would take them out and hold them to
my heart and chest as I saw Jesus do that night, embracing the revelation, and I would praise Him
and thank Him for what He had done, not only for me but for all of us. He had paid the price for our debt. He had paid the price for our healing. He had paid the price for our deliverance and freedom in every area of our life. I expressed my gratitude for the
reality of His grace and mercy. I knew the grace, truth and reality of His atonement would manifest
as I received it in faith and walked it out with Him. His love had set
me free and brought forth a fountain of thanksgiving within me. He had
lifted the burden, and His river of life, gratitude, and blessing was
flowing!
Jesus made it real to me that night. I thank
Him for this experience and revelation and for the reality of what He
did for me, and what He's done for you. It's ours for the taking, and
it's ours for the sharing and revealing to others.
God is a
faithful and will do supernatural things when we believe and trust in
Him, and when we praise Him with hearts of gratitude before we even see
the manifestation of it.
So, I invite you to step into
this Grace of Giving, to trust God at a new level of faith and see the
Father's hand of blessing upon your life and your family as you do so. I
invite you to draw upon this revelation of what Jesus did for you 2000
years ago and apply it to every area of your life.
God is
faithful. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. God says,
"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all of your
heart." (Jer 29:13)
2 Cor 9:7,8,10,11; Prov 3:5-6; Luke 6:38; Matt 7:7-8; Matt 14:13-21;
Heb 4:16; Is 9:4; 1 John 4:8-10; John 3:16; Rom 8:29; Col 2:13-15;
Eph 1:11; John 17:10; 2 Cor 4:7; Dan 1l:32; 1 Cor 1:9; John 14:13-14;
Eph 2:10; Is 30:21; Ps 32:8; Phil 4:6; Phil 4:19; Is 6:8;
Luke 2:49; Deut 8:18; Eph 2:5,6; Matt 6:33; Ps 139:1-16; Gal 2:20;
2 Cor 5:17; Heb 11:6; Jer 29:13
