Believe It Or Not - Steve Martin

 

Believe It Or Not

"Then this word of Adonai came to him: “Get up; go to Tzarfat, a village in Tzidon; and live there. I have ordered a widow there to provide for you.” 1 Kings 17:8-10, Complete Jewish Bible

We all know the verse, “Give and it shall be given to you.” Not enough most likely believe it though. I purposely didn’t share that verse at the top of this message for it may have become one of those, “Yeah, I have heard that plenty of times. Usually right before the offering. What else have you got?”

The verse I did share from 1 Kings tells of Elijah the Prophet going out as the Lord had instructed, then speaking to the widow as he asked for food. As you also know the story, she gave what she had, knowing that her son and herself were running out of provision themselves. It is a good, factual, story to learn from in our walk with the same God.

If one believes something, he, or she (not “it”, or any other pronoun) they do it. And the more often they do, the more it becomes a way of life.

We are given many examples in the Lord’s Word of giving something in faith and then seeing the Lord give it back, over and abundantly beyond what the giver thought possible.

We have many examples of His faithfulness and honesty. The widow and her bread and oil. Yeshua (Jesus) and the fish and loaves from the young boy, before feeding the multitude who had followed Him. And then of course His first miracle, taking the jars of water at the Cana wedding and turning them into the best wine. Each one had to first give something for His to use. He then multiplied it in return, benefiting many, including themselves.

Stories only? Or are these all factual moments for us to read, hear, and believe that the Lord is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Most Americans don’t really believe that verse from Hebrews because we can always go around the corner to the grocery or big-box store, or order on Amazon and get whatever we want the next day, or even within hours now. For many there is no need to trust the Lord for provision.

And with our checking account usually having some money in it, why trust the Lord for anything such as these stories tell us?

I tend to think we are about to learn many lessons in these days requiring us to trust more, in faith.

How can we walk in the ways of the Lord if we don’t practice walking in the ways of the Lord?

I recently told a young man this very thing. If we say we know the Lord, and do things our way, do we really know the Lord? If we don’t do things His way, then how can we say we are believers? How can we say we know Him? How can we say we do what He says to do in His Word, when we don’t even know what His Word says or take the needed time to ask Him daily what He wants to say to us, to hear and obey?

Are we living His life or our own? For Him or for ourselves?

I personally would doubt what you tell me if your life shows me you actually believe something else. True?

Givers give. And the Lord says, once again, “Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back — given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity." Luke 6:38, THE MESSAGE

I encourage you to practice, yes practice, what you preach. Does your walk keep up with your mouth? I hope so!

And no, this is not a request for contributions! It is a desire to see more believers believe what the Lord asks us to believe.

Believe it or not.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Time to Call It In - Won’t somebody help me by standing up to testify & say Amen? Jim Croft

Time to Call It In - Won’t somebody help me by standing up to testify & say Amen?  
Jim Croft  

I have travelled the globe in ministry for over 40 years and have been in well over 40 nations.  The trips were financed by $s from the sacrificial giving of tenderhearted and generous American Christians.  The wonderful saints who have given to ministries like mine have significant untapped funds available to them.

For many, it’s high time to call in funds from that which they have stored in the heavenly accounts over the nations where they sowed for the sake of the furthering the Kingdom.  This is especially so in regard to those who have added to the billions of $s given through the years to impoverished and developing nations.

Curiously, it is apparent that the indigenous ministers and ministries that have been sown into for continuous decades by American ministries have not learned the principles of sowing into those who have blessed them spiritually. (1Cor 9:7-11)  It’s rare for indigenous clergy and churches to reciprocate by giving American ministers offerings.  This is rude protocol that needs correction.

Many claim that the churches of other nations are too poor to give.  That is an unbiblical notion.  No one is too poor to give.  In addition, countless clergymen from many countries regularly fly to the USA to speak at conferences and churches in order to reap humongous offerings from soft-touch American believers.  I have ministered at some of those visitors’ home turf fellowships in afar-off lands.  I have observed at firsthand, that many don’t have the slightest hint of unmet needs.

Without exaggeration, I can say that as often as not, the foreigners have more elaborate homes and well equipped offices than the USA pastors who invite them to speak in the USA.  In many African nations, any pastor that does not have a luxury car and a fulltime chauffer is not considered by his indigenous peers to have achieved full-stride success in ministry.  

It might be said that the people who comprise the US funding base for global missions are as naïve and gullible as they are sweet and generous.  I think they would be quickly sobered if some of the more famous foreign revivalists that minister in their churches were scrutinized by the American News Media.

US Christiana don’t take kindly to learning that funds they gave to bless the poor and neglected in faraway places were primarily used to boost the lifestyles of some clergymen to gaudy levels of extravagance.  Stateside pastors who have been exposed as manipulators for personal gain by the media usually repent and return to their original desire to serve Christ as humble servants.

I am a giver and will continue to give with discretionary cheerfulness to missions, but I am not happy about seeing my countrymen played.  The ability of  US citizens to have been so generous for the purposes of the Kingdom and for disaster victims worldwide for centuries is a blessed privilege more so than a burden.   Nevertheless, the Bible endorses the concept of reciprocal giving.

Churches, ministries and ministers of supposed needy nations that have received from the believers of affluent nations are to have a mindset to give back when their benefactors are going through trials.  This is so that there might be equality. (2Cor 8:13-14)  This principle is a preventative against the believers of one nation endlessly financing the churches of developing nations that have had plenty of time to start exercising faith to be self-supportive and to sow seeds elsewhere.

I cannot believe the hindrance has been poverty and societal idolatry.  We must remember that the Church was launched in a period of harsh religious-political persecution, slavery, widespread poverty, food shortages, high taxation, and cultures satiated with occultism.  Yet, the churches of that day in every nation quickly became self- supporting and sowed into traveling ministries of foreigners.  

We need to ask ourselves why we continually have to support churches in nations that are not directly under political and religious persecution and have a rapidly expanding middleclass.  There are many believers in other nations that are far more dependent on America for their livelihood than they are on faith in God.  This should not be so.

Spiritual slothfulness is rampant in many countries where believers ought to be making faith confessions about what they have sown in order to reap harvests to overcome their circumstance. Shoe now on other Foot Many generous US believers have been going through tough times over the past number of years.  I believe that they have an untapped source from their faithful sowing during times of plenty.

It is the manifold return of all they have sown into foreign missions and ministers throughout the years.  Most conscientious Christians have a huge harvest waiting on them.  All they need do is to wake-up and call it in. Start naming the foreign works and workers that you have sowed into and call in your harvests from them with great expectation.

Please remember that God laid it on your heart to give to them.  It is reasonable and biblical to anticipate that he will lay it on their hearts to bless you.  It is just as possible for God to put your name, your ministry on the heart of someone in a foreign land as it has historically been for him to put their names on your heart.

I’m not speaking from theological theory.  I’ve experienced what I’m speaking about on numerous occasions.  My wife and I had a $5,000 need and we don’t make our needs known to others.  That week a brother from a former political and religious oppressed nation was on a flight to the USA.  The Lord spoke to him about Prudence and me during his journey here.  Upon arrival, he invited us to dinner as I had him countless times when ministering in his nation.  During the meal he told us what the Lord had said and gave us an envelope that contained $5,000 in cash.

On other occasions, my bank has called to say $1,000 or more had been wired into my account.  I recently spoke on this theme to those in my house church.  I led them in a session of “calling it from foreign heavenly bank accounts.”  Within the following week, we received $3,000 from unexpected sources.  I instantly gave $3,400 to a stateside ministry couple who have been struggling for several years.

Am I rich?  No!  There was a day when I piled up thousands in credit card debt to fly to distant ports to minister faith to needy people.  God completely revolutionized my perspective.  I’ve learned that when I’m outrageously generous towards my wife and toward others, God is outrageously generous towards me.

Call It In 

Don’t you think that it is about time for you to call in the treasures you have laid-up in foreign heavenly bank accounts?  The Lord is well able to bring you funds from where you’ve sown abroad.  Or, it might be that he’ll have the funds transferred into someone else’s stateside heavenly storage account who has been predisposed by God’s whisper to share with you.

One way or the other, it will come. Faith demands simplified boldness.

The simplicity is to say, God send money.  The boldness is to not be shy about the amount.  Your Heavenly Father is not staggered by monetary figures.  He is your friend and you have already proven through years of sacrificial giving that you are not greedy.  (Heb 6:10)

Remember, Father God is glorified when the prayers of Jesus’ people are answered. (Jn 15:7-8)  It is one of numerous signs that you are spiritually-minded and are abiding in the Vine.

Call it in!

Jim Croft

jcm888@comcast.net

Editor's Note: 

I wholeheartedly agree with Jim's words, "He is your friend and you have already proven through years of sacrificial giving that you are not greedy.  (Heb 6:10) Remember, Father God is glorified when the prayers of Jesus’ people are answered. (Jn 15:7-8)  It is one of numerous signs that you are spiritually-minded and are abiding in the Vine."

The photo below was added by me (just because I like photos and color!) 

Also, as for the support we provide to our friends in other countries, we have been to their homes. Our good pastor friend in India lives in a three room apartment and sleeps on a cot in Hyderabad. One family in Jerusalem, with four kids, soon to be five, live in a 700 square foot (if that) four room apartment. Another couple in Jerusalemwhom we support monthly live in an apartment provided by the ministry they volunteer with, while having little earthly goods of their own. 

You need to know those whom you are supporting. If you don't, then find ones you do.

Steve Martin

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. And as for our ministry, we do not take funds from the ministry for salaries or office rent. My full time accounting job, and my wife's daycare job provide for our living.