It’s impossible to separate generosity from revival. When we believe God is our provider, we will simply act like it.
Look at the early church’s approach to giving. Luke records in the book of Acts that “There was no one among them who lacked, for all those who were owners of land or houses sold them, and brought the income from what was sold, and placed it at the apostles’ feet. And it was distributed to each according to his need.” (Acts 4:34-35).
Extreme Giving
Two things stand out here to me: 1) People who were being rocked by God were suddenly extremely generous. 2) Although they knew the needs of the people in their town, (in those days pretty much everybody knew everybody as most people were born in the same community they would die in), yet they didn’t sell their stuff and give it to the needy. They gave it to their leaders and let them distribute the money as they saw fit.
In other words, they weren’t just generous; they were trusting! They trusted their leaders’ insights into who should get the money and how much, more than they trusted their own opinion. Some would have us believe that this happened because they had perfect leaders and today’s leaders are blah, blah, blah.
Of course, it’s true that there are bad, selfish, greedy and irresponsible leaders today. But the early church had the same issues. I mean come on, the 12 apostles refused to feed certain widows because of their ethic prejudice (Acts 6:1). They solved the problem by choosing seven men from same ethic group to feed them.
Generosity and honor are two core values that are necessary for sustained revival that transforms culture.
Protecting Treasures
It will be clear from people’s responses that there are a hundred reasons that people have for not trusting leaders and/or for being selfish. People always protect their treasures.
Many will respond as if I wrote a personal letter to them or I had them in mind when I wrote this blog, never realizing I have never met them. But they feel the need to defend their right to keep their money and not trust anyone.
Remember, I wrote a general statement. If you took it personally you might want to ask yourself why. If this blog makes you mad or causes pain, it just might be that you discovered a problem in someone very close to you. {eoa}
Kris Vallotton is the senior associate leader at Bethel Church in Redding, California, where he has served with Bill Johnson for three decades. He has written several books, including the best-selling The Supernatural Ways of Royalty and Heavy Rain.
