(Image above: TBN’s Matthew and Laurie Crouch with Pastor Robert Morris.)
We are honored to welcome our good friend Pastor Robert Morris from Gateway Church in Dallas as our guest blogger today. Robert’s book, The Blessed Life, is giving fresh revelation to people all over the world about the blessings God has for those who will follow Him as extravagant givers in every area of their lives. Check out the blog below, and get the book for yourself. — Matthew and Laurie Crouch
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Years ago I began to be deeply troubled by what I frequently heard whenever God’s people were being exhorted to give of their finances. What I heard time and again was basically an appeal to greed and self-interest. The message was basically, “Give, and you’ll get much more.”
In other words, “give to get.”
After years of studying the Bible and spending intimate time with our heavenly Father, it was impossible for me to imagine the wonderful Person who “so loved the world that He gave His only Son,” saying to Himself, “Oh, I’m so thrilled! My people are getting a revelation of getting!”
This led me on a journey that ultimately resulted in a book and teaching series I called, The Blessed Life.
Many of those “give to get” exhortations that bothered me so much quoted Jesus’ words in Luke 6:38. Now, I think Luke 6:38 is a wonderful verse of Scripture. But I’m also convinced it’s one of the most frequently misapplied and misunderstood verses in the Bible. Its words are very familiar to most Christians. You can probably quote it from memory:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
One of the most common mistakes people make about this verse is assuming that Jesus is speaking only of money. In truth, He’s revealing a principle that applies to every area of our lives.
Yes, this principle applies to money, but you can also give forgiveness. You can give mercy. You can give understanding. You can give patience.
Jesus is simply talking about the broad principle of giving. Whatever you give is going to be given back to you in “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over” (Luke 6:38).
When you give away an apple seed by planting it, you don’t just get back an apple seed. In time, you actually get back a whole apple tree, and on that tree are many apples, and each apple has many seeds. You get back so much more than you actually give.
Yet this is precisely where so many people go wrong regarding this passage of Scripture. Once you understand the wonderful truth of it, there is a tremendous temptation to make it your motivation for giving — rather than simply allowing the truth of it to free you to be generous in all things.
Many well-meaning preachers and Bible teachers actually fall into this trap, and thus encourage others to do the same. It’s very true that “you can’t out-give God.” But the “give and it shall be given to you” principle is to be our reward, not our motivation.
The good news is, if you give forgiveness, an abundance of forgiveness will be given back to you. If you sow love, you will receive an overflowing harvest of love.
This is a fundamental principle in the kingdom of God. It is a truth I have heard called the law of reciprocity. But approaching it in a balanced way is very much a matter of the heart. That heart is the key to everything — especially living the blessed life.
I should probably define terms. What do I mean by “the blessed life”? In other words, what does a life filled with “blessing” look like?
Being “blessed” means having supernatural power working for you. (By contrast, being “cursed” means having supernatural power working against you.) The days of the blessed person are filled with divine “coincidences” and heavenly meaning.
A blessed man may or may not be wealthy by the world’s standards, but he enjoys a quality of life that many billionaires would envy.
At four separate points in the book of Deuteronomy, God tells those who will obey Him that He will bless everything to which they put their hands (see 14:29; 15:10; 23:20; 28:8,12). That’s what the blessed life is like. Everything you touch does well.
Blessing permeates every aspect of a person’s life — health, relationships, work, family, emotions, and thoughts.
This is, indeed, a key part of my life message. I love sharing it.
Matt and Laurie have gone to great lengths this month to share that message with you and TBN’s global audience. I’m deeply grateful for that. I hope you’ll take hold of it. I know you’ll be glad you did.
