Paul says in verse 18-21, “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house…”
Paul was continually giving; giving his finances as well giving through serving, teaching and training… mostly at his own expense.
As a born again believer, Paul had discovered that, as Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” so he spent his whole life giving!
Givers are rivers, not dams or swamps…
Givers are rivers of continual flowing fresh water… rivers of provision and blessing flowing from the Lord, to them, and then through them to others.
Believers that hold onto what the Lord gives them, dam up the river and stop the fresh flow. They eventually become huge stinking swamps full of bugs, mosquitos and snakes.
Don’t block God’s river from flowing through you. Don’t become a stinking swamp… Let the river of God flow through you to others and your life will always be fresh, full of life and full of power.
The key to real prosperity is allowing God’s river of provision to go through you, not just to you! The Lord’s river is never just enough to meet YOUR needs, pay YOUR bills and provide for YOUR desires…
The Lord ALWAYS gives bread for eating as well as seed for sowing, in fact the seed for sowing is always more than the bread for eating. Some believers have that backwards, build a dam, and then retain most of what God gives them, and then let just a trickle leak through to the other side. That is a sure recipe to become a swamp. If you are not experiencing God’s rushing river of blessing and provision, then maybe you have stopped the flow by damming it up through holding on, and blocking the flow.
I encourage every one of you to let the river flow!
Don’t hold onto your money, your stuff, your time or your service to the Lord or toward others.
Many believers are hoarders. Their homes are full of stuff that they have not used in years, they spend all of their money on themselves and all of their time serving their own interests. Such people are not happy, blessed, or fulfilled. God’s river toward them has been effectively blocked and they find themselves in continual lack, they are continually facing challenges that they cannot come with and basically, their lives stink… Just like all swamps stink! The problem is not on God’s end, the problem is that there is blockage on their end.
If this is you, then I encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to get some Holy Ghost dynamite and to blow up the wall of the dam that you built. Then, keep giving, keep letting the river flow and after all of the rotten swamp gets flushed out, your life will become a fresh, flowing, living river of blessing and power.
