Just as Israel made sacrificial offerings of praise to God,
believers today can use giving as an instrument of praise. It is
interesting to note that Israel never gave a blemished animal
as a sacrifice. In light of this, if you give a secondhand pair of
shoes, then that is what you will get in return. Don’t give your
old worn-out things; give your good things and you’ll never
lack good things. This is what I did by giving my airplane; it
was the best thing I had at the time.
A few years ago an evangelist came to me and said, “I don’t
understand it, but my income has completely stopped. I haven’t
had a dime come in for weeks!” Since I had just preached that
morning on Luke 6:38, I told him that the key was giving and
that he should give whatever he had; if not money, then something
else. He went home and gathered up all his clothes
(except one suit, one sport coat and one pair of slacks), passed
them out to the men at the unemployment office, and preached
the Word to them. When he came to the meeting that night, he
was beaming. He had given as a praise to God and was really
high because of it! Well, before the service was over, people had
handed him nearly $200 in cash! No one in that service said
anything about what he had done; he was merely seated in the
congregation. The people sought him out and gave to him as
God directed them. This thing really works!
Posts Tagged ‘money’
Kenneth Copeland — Giving, A Form Of Praise
Kenneth Copeland — Giving To The Poor Part 1
The second form of depositing is giving to the poor.
Proverbs 19:17 says, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth
unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him
again.” When you give to the poor, you can expect back what
you gave. You can’t give away your money by giving to the
poor. You are actually lending to the Lord, and He will repay
you. He considers it a loan, and since He teaches us not to owe
money, He won’t owe money either. As soon as you lend it to
Him, He will pay it back. If Jesus walked up to you and asked
to borrow $100, don’t you think He would repay you?
It is important for you to realize that all material wealth is
in the earth. It will not be rained down on us from heaven. It is
already here, and there is more than enough for everyone. The
Bible says that we will suck of the abundance of the seas and of
the treasures hid in the sand (see Deuteronomy 33:19). The
problem is that we don’t know how to reach it. However, by
giving to the poor we are giving God an opportunity not only
to work with us financially and bless us, but also to help the
man in need.
There are some things you need to understand about this
form of giving. I remember when a close friend of mine was
telling me about taking some things to a poor woman. She said,
“You know, before I could even get out the door, the woman
was asking if I had any pots and pans or anything else she
could have.” This attitude of the poor woman disturbed her, so
we prayed about it. The Lord spoke to me and said, “That’s the
way you do Me. I give you one thing, and before long you’re
jerking My coattail over something else. Now that’s all right
with Me, but you must realize that you are the only hope a poor
person has. You represent supply to them and they have never
had that before.”
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Kenneth Copeland — Ready To Sow Part 3
My schedule was already set up, and it dictated that I use
an airplane. You can’t operate on our schedule and use the airlines
or an automobile. It was set up around a private plane.
Airlines service 650 airports in the United States. We service
8,000 with our own plane. So you can see that there was an
immediate need for another airplane.
God said, “When you give the airplane, this deposit will
enable you to call for a withdrawal to handle your television
ministry.” Well, in order to film it and put it on the air before
the people, we needed several months’ time and thousands of
dollars. The Lord had already shown me how it was to operate—
the people who heard the Word would support it in order
for others to hear it. But there was a certain period of time
when the television ministry would not be exposed to anyone.
This created a need in addition to the need for an airplane. The
Lord said, “I’ll handle it for you if you’ll make the proper
deposits.” So we did.
On February 21, just 10 days later, we had a new airplane
and the money for the television ministry. Just 10 days! Only
God could handle a situation like that. The second airplane was
worth five times more than the first one. It was larger and faster,
flew higher and farther. In fact, it was exactly the plane that I
had asked for, and all the bills were paid! Praise the Lord!
We need to learn how to make the proper deposits in our
heavenly bank so that we can withdraw from it when needed.
Once you realize you have this on deposit, it will become easy
to believe God for it. Your faith will not work easier. It’s not difficult
to believe God for the money you have on deposit at the
corner bank. You don’t have to exercise your faith to write a
check on it. But it takes a considerable amount of faith to get
money when you don’t have any on deposit. The same principle
works with God. The reason this action took place so fast in my
case was because the deposit had already been made. It was
there in heaven and available on call. There are many people
who have made these deposits with God and have never called
for them because they don’t realize they are laid up in store for
them now.