History's Handful Event macht Unterschied
Daniel J. Arnold
In July 1997, I was at the History's Handful World Briefing in Breckenridge, Colorado. At the end of the event, Makram Morgos from the Sudan spoke and said that when he questioned God in the midst of discouragement as to how they could ever reach the Sudan for the Great Commission, the plan and task being so large. Makram told us that God said, "I can do what I tell you to do." When the pledge cards were given out, I prayed "Lord, I'm tapped out right now; you know I've already promised more than I can do. I'm on my line of credit at the business, $650,000, but that's me. What can you do that you would tell me to do?"
To my amazement, God spoke the name of the director of a particular region into my ear. Playing along and not sure yet if this was God or me, I turned to his request and looked, everything on the page went dark, but the name of a particular city in this region, which rose up from the page. After the event I asked the director which funding request was most important to his work. He said the name of this same city. I made the pledge and within a week felt a strong need to visit the country this city was in. This I can now explain as a call by God. I made arrangements and went to visit the staff. God moved supernaturally throughout the trip, and was with me in a very strong presence.
The first citizen of this country I met was a taxi driver who picked me up at the border. As I spoke to him about the purpose of my trip, he exclaimed with a bright smile, "Jesus, I like Jesus very much." He had seen The Jesus Film, which was the main tool used in the funding project. I can still remember thinking he was going to crash the car because his eyes were so filled with tears as I prayed with him asking Jesus to forgive his sins as he drove us up to the city. This and many other examples were given to me by God to express that this was His will that I would become involved in funding the Great Commission, and He was very much pleased by my prayer.
He revealed His hand to me as never before on this trip. And now as I look back on my journey as a Christian into supernatural grace as God's co-worker, it began with a simple prayer, "What can you do, God?" This was more to do with my life than about money. God was after my heart, and He broke it open and touched me through this experience that has defined my purpose for life on this earth.
When I returned home, I received a call from a real estate partner who owned 50% of an empty shopping center we had purchased a year earlier. My partner told me that while I was overseas he had leased all the vacant spaces to a telemarketer. The tenant was willing to spend two million dollars on improvements to the shopping center at their own cost and sign a long-term lease with us. This one lease that arrived on the scene and became a deal in the seven days I was gone with no effort on my part, netted me $1,100,000 after taxes. God can do much, much more than He would tell me to do!
1. I have learned most of all giving is spiritual. The donor must be spiritually qualified to take part in the flowing grace of giving in their lives and the supernatural experience of "having all that you need, abounding in good work, and increasing and enlargement of harvest being rich in every way." 2 Corinthians 9. God wants a clean and pure vessel to work through. Anyone can put money into the offering plate; only a few can qualify to be God's banker.
2. Giving to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the expansion of His kingdom on earth has become the common purpose of our family, our co-mission. We test the will of God for us in prayer and come together in agreement on every gift.
Personally, giving has stripped me of assets so I cannot count on my own storehouses. By giving, trust in riches and wealth, as man does, is transferred to trusting in God. Proverbs says a rich man's high tower is his wealth. David said the Lord alone was his high tower. Another way to explain it is how can we pray the Lord's prayer "grant me this day's bread" when we are so rich and therefore self-reliant, that we need not ask God for bread or any other earthly want? I have learned during my walk with God that He demands faith. "The just shall live by faith" and "without faith it is impossible to please God." Giving enters into a life of faith and trust in God. Jesus said, "No man can have two masters." I think if money is my master, I can't serve God with a whole heart.
3. The joy in giving is watching God work! Seeing the supernatural foretelling of His plan and His word through me and other lives of former fallen men and women to reach this world with His offer of grace is worth the price of any gift. All the endeavors of man mean nothing compared to one act of the Almighty God. The joy of giving is being able to say as John did in 1 John, "That which we have heard, we have seen with our own eyes." To see God perform His work with our own eyes is a joy unspeakable; to know that He used me to extend His offer to others is an amazement and thrill with which nothing else can compare. The Bible calls it the joy of the harvest, this joy is enhanced as God calls us into being His co-worker.
4. Giving changes lives because God changes the heart of the donor by putting His burden into it. This burden is greater than the self-centeredness that is in the donor's heart, and the burden pushes out selfishness so the grace of giving can flow into their lives. No one can give unselfishly without the grace of giving from God. I have seen lives change because God is active in those lives and where God is active there will be personal growth and spiritual change to a maturity. I think the pilgrimage is toward surrender and the fullness of Christ. For some of the body of Christ, God accomplishes this end by inviting us into the life of adventure in giving.
Gott ist mein Geschäftspartner
So werden Christen frei für den Dienst mehr