Today’s New Covenant nugget comes from Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Notice… Jesus did not say, “freely give and you shall freely receive”, or, “if you give, you will receive”, He said to RECEIVE first, and then to GIVE. Yes, you will receive, press down, shaken together, running over when you give, but RECEIVING comes first!
We can only give what we have received…
The Lord never tells us to give what we do not have… He wants us to give out of the overflow, not from the bottom of the cup. There should be no pressure on giving… giving does and should take faith, but never pressure. It takes faith to let go, but all increase is in the letting go!
WE HAVE TO GET A REVELATION THAT NOT EVERYTHING THAT WE RECEIVE IS FOR US… WE NEED TO ASK THE LORD TO HELP US TO DISCERN WHICH IS BREAD AND WHICH IS SEED!
2 Corinthians 9:10 (NLT) says, “God is the One who provides seed for the farmer (for sowing) and then bread to eat. In the same way, He will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous…”
The Amplified Bible says, “Now He who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing [that is, your resources] and increase the harvest of your righteousness [which shows itself in active goodness, kindness, and love]. You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous.”
Two important things jump out at me as I meditate upon this scripture… firstly, if I eat the seed and plant the bread, there will be no harvest, and secondly, only the SEED has increase built into it… the harvest is in the SEED, not in the bread… bread does not multiply, seed does! The HARVEST is in the SEED!
We need to use our faith for BREAD for us to enjoy and for our personal blessing, but we also need to use our faith to receive SEED for a harvest so that we can be used by the Lord in His kingdom to bless others!
When we were in South Africa, Esther’s parents decided to give her, her inheritance to help us purchase a home… we purchased a beautiful home, our first home! We believed that the home was for us… bread for our eating and enjoyment, but a few years later, the Lord led us to move back to America and to GIVE the home away. We prayed about selling it, but the Lord clearly led us to SOW it. That home was seed, not bread!
A few years later, the Lord led someone to bless us with a beautiful home in Tampa… multiple times more in value that the one that we had sowed. Discerning that our first home was seed, not bread has produced a continual harvest to this day!
We use our faith TO RECEIVE bread and seed, then we are led by the Spirit to discern which is which… then we use our faith to sow the seed into good ground! It also takes faith to ENJOY the bread… taking a vacation, or a day off, going out for a meal or purchasing something for FUN, or pleasure takes faith, but we need the revelation that both enjoying the BREAD that He has provided and sowing the SEED that He has given us blesses Him.
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
In His amazing Love, Nick
