Build The House
We studied earlier in Haggai, the real purpose of silver and gold. Verse 2:8 states, "The
silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 9 tells us the purpose of silver and gold. The glory
of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts. The purpose of silver and gold is to build
the house of the Lord of hosts.
When God invites people to His house
He wants it to have the WOW FACTER. God is a first class God. Everything must be the best of the best that comes before Him.
We see this in how he commands offerings to be brought to Him. The fat there of, the best part of the best lamb in the flock
is to be brought before Him.
We discussed earlier in this book, how
God had His people take silver and gold from the land of Egypt to build His sanctuary in the wilderness, a place where He
could dwell among His people.
We know that He no longer dwells in
temples of gold and silver but in the hearts of men and women, however, the word says that He changes not. The silver and
gold is still His, and is to be used for His purposes in the earth to show His greatness.
Bring An Offering
The following scriptures tell us another purpose of gold and silver in the earth.
Exodus 3:21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and
it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:
Exodus 23:15 Thou shalt
keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed
of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
When man comes before God he is not to come empty handed. God has always
provided Himself an offering. This is why He says that the silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of
host. He has provided it for man to bring an offering before Him and worship.
1Chronicles 16:29, Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring
an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Psalms 96:8, Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring
an offering, and come into his courts.
Giving Alms
Another purpose of silver and gold is the giving
of alms.
Jesus said in Luke 6:30,
Give to every man that asketh of thee...
It states in Acts 1:1-3, 6, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the
hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom
they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms….Then Peter said, Silver and gold
have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Luke 6:38 states, Give,
and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into
your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
I find it interesting that this verse is in
John’s writings, who was at the gate called Beautiful. 1John 3:17 states, But whoso hath this world’s
good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth
the love of God in him?
Peter and John gave the lame man much more that he was asking at the gate called Beautiful. They gave him a new life.
He went from being carried everywhere he went, to walking, leaping and praising God, in an instant.
Acts 3:7, And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength.
And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered
with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
The lame man had the love of God ministered to Him that day. He went from being called the lame man, to being
called the man, suddenly. He was freed of Satan’s name tags.
Acts
4:14, And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. Truth
always prevails.
He went from being a man who begged, to an asset in
the community. He was in the right place at the right time. Not only that, but there were five thousand people saved
that day and it all started with a lame man asking for silver and gold. (We are still talking about the power of
durable riches.)
God always gives more than we ask. He is able to
do exceeding, abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that dwells in us.
Rendering
Tribute
Another purpose for silver and gold is to pay taxes.
The word used for taxes in the Bible is tribute, which means, A tax imposed by a king
on his subjects. There are different uses of the word found in the Bible. One use is paying tribute to the king. Another use
is to pay tribute to keep the temple of God. According to Romans both are God’s will.
Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers
that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation.
Romans 13:6-7, For for this cause pay
ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to
all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to
whom honour.
According to Jesus both are God’s will.
Matthew 22:21, Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the
things that are God’s.
In the old testament every Jew above twenty years of age was required to pay tribute to support the temple of God,
(2Sa 20:24, 1Ki 4:6, Ro 13:6, Mt 17:24-27)
The "tribute money",
shown to our Lord in Matthew 22:19 was the denarius, bearing Caesar’s superscription. It was the tax paid by every Jew
to the Romans. (Mathew 22:19)
Numbers 31:41, And Moses gave
the tribute, which was the LORD’S heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Deuteronomy 16:10, And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill
offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed
thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant,
and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among
you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.
In the above scriptures we see the attitude in which tribute is to be rendered. It is to be given with a free
will. In order to have God’s blessing on your taxes it must be done this way. We should want to keep the
house of God and our country prosperous by giving our part.
God will
provide what the king asks if we keep our attitudes right no matter how much the cost. Our God is the God of more than enough.
Recently in a dream, I saw myself saying these words to an individual, " I will get in the face of anyone that says that
my God is not extravagant. And He wants to be extravagant through you." People have been lying on God long enough. He
is EXTRAVAGANT.
He is a super natural God. Jesus told Peter to go fishing
and take the money out of the first fishes mouth and go and pay their taxes. He will do the same for you. He will pay your
taxes by super natural means.
What ever you need God to do for you,
just ask Him and He will do it. Those are the words of Jesus. Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name I will do it. (John
14:14) But you must ask in faith, not doubting, for it is impossible to please God without faith. (Hebrews 11:6)
Paying
Debt
Romans 13:8 states, Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that
loveth another has fulfilled the law.
In II kings 4:1-7 we see durable riches, oil, being used to pay debt. The widow
of a prophet was in debt. The creditor was come to take her sons in to slavery because
of the debt. God worked a miracle with oil and paid her debt and provided for her a comfortable
lifestyle as well.
II Kings 4:1-7, Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets
unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant
did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
And
Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine
handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all
thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when
thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour
out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went
from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and
she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel.
And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And
he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy
children of the rest.
God does not want His children in debt. Debt is bondage and God hates bondage. How people got in debt is no
issue. God is the deliverer of all debts, both large and small and will provide more than enough so no man, woman or nation
will need to borrow any thing ever again. This widow had to borrow vessels for the oil, but that was the last time she would
ever borrow. From then on, she had money in her pocket to live on. The prophet told her to pay her debt and live on the
rest.
She had a super natural experience with God. The prophet told her to borrow every pot in town.
If she did what the man told her to do she was set for life. She tapped into God's unlimited
supply.
One
miracle from God changed her and her familie’s lives for the rest of their lives. She put herself
in a position to receive. She obeyed the prophet. She shut herself in with God and brought empty vessels before Him to fill.
As long as she brought He filled. The prophet knew his God. He told her to borrow not a few. Glory to God.
We see the same thing in the
miracle with the loaves and fish in the feeding of the five thousand men plus women and
children. As long as the bread and fish was being handed out there was bread and fish to hand out. In both miracles
they used what they had and God abundantly supplied them out of His riches in glory. As long
as there were vessels to be filled there was oil present to fill them.
When we put ourselves in a
position to receive from God by bringing our tithes and offerings to him and keep ourselves
humble (empty) before him, we can have super natural pockets, super natural bank accounts, super natural businesses
and super natural debt relief. There will always be abundant provision there. Every time
we go into our pockets, money is there. Every time we go to our back accounts money
is there. Everything we set our hands to prospers super naturally.
We must believe in our super natural God to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that
works in us.
The widow women just wanted her debts paid
to keep her children out of bondage, but God set her up for the rest of her life and
the lives of her children. The prophet said for her and her children to live off the rest.
One super natural experience with God will change a family forever. I believe that my God is a super natural God
and that He does super natural things for me. I believe in super natural debt cancellation.
How about you We need to say every day, "My God is a super natural God and He does
super natural things for me."
If you don't watch you thinking
you will think that the widow only had enough left over to live on for a couple of months.
God does not think like that. When He does something He does it His way and that is in a BIG WAY.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He gave us ETERNAL LIFE not just life for a
couple of months.
He will do the same today that we read
about in the scriptures for whosoever that will come to Him and ask in faith. The widow
cried to the prophet of God and God answered her cry. In this day we can go to God directly
for ourselves. However, He may use a prophet to bring us instructions on how to receive our miracles. There are
prophets of God in the earth today with a debt deliverance anointing on them to deliver
God’s people from debt by super natural means. Receive them and receive their
anointing, reject them and reject God’s plan of abundant deliverance for His people.
The following passage of scripture is not
a parable, Jesus is talking about a certain king concerning the forgiveness of debt or
the cancelling of debt. He used it to show Peter how God expects people to treat each other concerning
all types of debt.
This is how
God is. He is a forgiver of debt, all debt, no matter how it came. Jesus said that it
is hard for people to follow God when it comes to money. They want to make sure that they get what rightfully belongs to
them, completely missing the way God would act in the situation.
God can and will move on creditors to forgive your debt when you get your
heart in the right place as the passage explains. But if you don’t, you got to
pay it. If you forgive debt, your will have your debt forgiven. You got to put yourself
in a position to receive forgiveness of debt and then use your faith to have the same done unto you.
The reason that we do not see more debt cancellation in the earth is because people do not operate the law
of debt cancellation or shall we call it the law of liberty. You free somebody and sombody
will free you. For whatsoever good thing you do to another, someone will do it unto you.
Matthew 18:21-35, Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft
shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven
times: but, Until seventy times seven.
23
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account
of his servants.
24 And when he had begun
to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and
children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion,
and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which
owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat,
saying, Pay me that thou owest.
29 And his
fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all.
30 And he would
not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
31 So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto
their lord all that was done.
32
Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity
on thee?
34 And his lord
was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto
him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father
do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
I
know God moves in super natural debt cancellation. I have experienced it. Two times that I am thinking of,
binding contracts were released which involved thousands and thousands of dollars. A few years before
either of these took place, my wife and I forgave debts of several hundred dollars each
in individual’s lives. We put ourselves in position to receive the forgiveness
of debt and we got it.
Years before I knew anything about the word of God, simply by God’s mercy, my oldest son’s life
was spared as a three day old infant. The hospital bill was $160,000. Insurance took care
of 80 % of it. I don’t know who paid the 20% for which I was billed that the insurance
did not cover. All that I know, it wasn’t me.
Several years later I saw my former boss of the company in a place 600 miles
from where this all took place. He asked me about the outcome of the hospital bill,
if the company ever paid the other 20%. I told him that I did not know who paid it, all
that I know is that I did not pay it and I never heard anything else about it. God is a super natural God
and does super natural things for His loved ones.
I once heard of a man many years ago who was sentenced
to prison for 30 years for white collar crime. In prison he got saved and served God
faithfully. One day a guard came to his cell and said, Follow me. He led him to the outer doors
of the prison without any paperwork or any formal release and opened the door and said, You are free to go.
Later some one asked him if he ever went back to the prison to see why he was released.
His reply was, I’m not sure that they know that I am gone. We serve a super natural
God who does super natural things. All that we must do is put ourselves in a position
to receive it.
In II Kings chapter seven, God made the footsteps of four lepers sound like a mighty army in the ears of the
enemy. The enemy was confused and fled for their lives. God is a super natural God and
will do super natural things for you. Just put yourself in a position to receive it
and He will do it.
