OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH 2017- GIVE FIRST

Memorise: I will sing unto the LORD because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 13:6
Read: 1st Chronicles 16:2-3
2 And when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.
3 And he dealt to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine.
Acts 20:35
35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Bible in one year: Ezra 9-10, Ezekiel 44:1-14

1. Generous divine provision is a benefit of those in the sheepfold of the Great Shepherd.
2. God prepares a table of abundance for His sheep (Psalm 23:5). No wonder David, in Psalm 13:6, said: “I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.”
3. This scripture is a personal testimony of David. After God had blessed him beyond measure, he began to testify of God’s goodness through songs.
4. If you carefully study the life of David, you will discover that the secret of his prosperity lay in the principles he lived by.
5. One of such principles is demonstrated in today’s Bible reading: he believed giving to be the key to receiving. Can you imagine a man giving a loaf of bread to every citizens of a country? This was what David did, and he even gave much more!
6. We often wonder why most of us are not flowing in God’s abundance, even though God has resources to cater for more than we could ever need. One likely reason for this is that we do not strictly follow divine financial principles. Jesus, in Luke 6:38, said: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
7. Let us draw a few lessons from this. Firstly, if you ever want to receive, it is your duty to first give. If you fail to sow, you would be deceiving yourself to expect a harvest.
8. Many of us refuse to give, and yet we continue to pray, fast and do all other things right.
9. If you want to receive, first give. It is important to note that God will never owe anyone.
10. If you give, you will receive a harvest, no matter how long it takes, as long as the seed is not uprooted.
11. However, the way the harvest comes and when it will come are issues that may not be too clear to you. For instance, you may be expecting your harvest for a particular seed in the form of physical cash, not knowing that God has already given it to you as a harvest of peace in the time of trouble, or as protection when the enemy came calling.
12. Sometimes, you cannot tell how the harvest of a given seed will come, although if you key into the Holy Spirit, He can sometimes reveal to you that a particular harvest you received was from a particular seed you sowed.
13. Moreover, God who knows our needs should be given the freedom to determine when and how our harvests should come.
14. Just make sure that a lifestyle of giving and sowing seeds in an indelible part of you.
15. Do you give to God? Do you give to His servants? Do you give to the needy? How often do you give?

I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35 This is a scripture we should prayerfully reflect on. If it is more blessed to give than to receive why not choose to be a giver and not a receiver? May God continually increase Pastor E.A Adeboye for blessing us with the word of God daily.

Action Point
Giving is an act. Giving is also a spirit. Pray that God will give you the spirit of giving.
HYMN
There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.
Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.
There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.
There shall be showers of blessing;
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come, and now honor Thy Word.
There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!
 

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