Giving in the Discomfort Zone

I want to begin with a passage from First Kings, chapter 17, verses 8 through 16. And do you know why? Because I feel that this passage, and this episode in the life of the prophet Elijah, somehow represents the very emblem, the very theme, spiritually speaking—the anointing, the energy, the purpose of God within which this season we are living through is unfolding. It is under this banner, under this spiritual sign, that we are undertaking what we are undertaking, and I believe you are going to see that very quickly. And that is why I have chosen it, because I want... remember that what we are experiencing is simply an exercise for something much greater that God wants to do in your life.

The temple is ultimately secondary and even tertiary compared with the greater matter God wants to unfold within you. And that is why I want this passage to serve as the banner, to serve as the theme of giving extraordinarily to God in times of scarcity in order to be extraordinarily blessed. Giving extraordinarily to God in times of scarcity in order to be extraordinarily blessed. Chapter 17, verse 8, says, “Then the word of the LORD came to him, to Elijah, saying: Arise, go to Zarephath of Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering firewood, and he called to her and said: Please bring me a little water in a cup so that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it...” And you see, she could do that part just fine; apparently, she had enough water.

But the prophet stops her and takes the drama to a much deeper and more tense level, and he called to her and said, “Come here for just a moment; please bring me a little water in a cup,” and as she was going to bring it, he called to her again and said, “You know what? Please also bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she answered—this is where she began to slip and respond negatively—“Tell the LORD your God that I have no baked bread; I have only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in a vessel, and now I was gathering two sticks so that I could go in and prepare it for myself and my son.” Look at that image of two sticks. If you were a student of literature, you would understand that those two sticks meant there was not even enough firewood to cook food.

I imagine that during a drought they had cut down all the trees, turned them into charcoal—anything they could—and even to cook one tiny thing they had to search everywhere to find something. She had two sticks; those two sticks are symbols of the utter scarcity and deprivation, the drought that existed in the land. Now she was gathering two sticks “so that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and then let ourselves die.” There you have a very clear image of the devastation in the land, the utter drought and deprivation that existed: a woman preparing her final meal before lying down to die. But Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said, but make something for me first.” You see, that is the key.

And by the way, I am aware—I forgot to say it at the beginning—that we are using the same passage Omar preached from last Sunday, but this is different. The Word of God is multifaceted, you know; it has different levels, different... I asked Omar to preach it, and he preached it in his style, with his approach, and I wanted to preach it with this approach. It would take too long to explain, but I assure you, do not think the pastor had a senior moment and forgot that it was preached last Sunday. No. This is the same passage, but we are doing it differently.

“Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said, but make something for me first.” That is very important. One of the foremost laws of good stewardship—of the proper use of money, time, and everything else—is that the Lord must always be given His portion first. And then everything you desire after that will be added to you. That is the essential law of all good stewardship of life. “First make me a small cake from it, baked under the ashes, and bring it to me. And afterward you shall make some for yourself and your son.” And afterward you shall make some for yourself and your son. For me first, and then for yourself. My brothers, my sisters, there you have God’s crazy reasoning—God’s transcendent, counterintuitive reasoning. Make something for me first, and afterward you shall make some for yourself and your son. Why? Because the LORD, the God of Israel, has said this: The flour in the jar shall not run out, nor shall the oil in the vessel diminish, until the day the LORD sends rain upon the face of the earth. How many can receive that for their lives today? The flour will not run out, the oil will not diminish until the day the LORD sends rain again. Until prosperity returns, until normal times return, there will be no lack.

So she went and did as Elijah told her, and do you know what happened? He ate, and she and her household ate for many days. Notice the contrast between, “I am making a little food with the very last of what I have left so that we can die,” and she, her son, and her household—her entire household—eating. What does “her household” mean? I imagine the servants were in there, the dogs in the courtyard of the house ate too; who knows whether she was also able to take food to the neighbors—she and her entire household. Her grandchildren... she and her household ate for many days. And the flour in the jar did not run out, nor did the oil in the vessel diminish, according to the word the LORD had spoken through Elijah. Bless the Lord for His Holy Word.

Brothers and sisters, this passage is illustrative; it is a passage that teaches us one of the deepest principles. Meches, hand me that passage on stewardship that is over there. It places everything within a context of crisis and urgency, but also one of extreme clarity. Do you remember that a few days ago I spoke to you about the case of Jehoshaphat? And I told you that in the case of Jehoshaphat, where God told him, “Stand still, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD,” things are not always that clear; sometimes you have to strike hard and you have to fight. But God had chosen that passage because it illustrated the very essence of what a movement of faith is: a crisis; a prophetic word arising from among the people; a people who believe that word and launch out to do something that seems crazy, such as simply going to face a far more numerous enemy when the only way they are going to fight is with praise and worship. Madness? But when those people believe what God has told them, God turns the enemy’s weapons against one another, and at the end of that crisis there is great—pay attention—great provision, great fullness, and the people return convinced, just as when they began in crisis.

And I told you that this is the essential trajectory of faith in the life of a man or woman of God. And these passages are like that; they are illustrative passages. This passage is the same: in one sense it removes all the complexity, removes it entirely, and what remains is an extremely clear situation in which the processes of faith can be seen in a very, very paradigmatic way—very precisely, very clearly. And that is what this passage reveals: what stewardship is, what it means to give to the Lord in a biblical way. And it places it all within a context of extreme crisis, extreme urgency, and extreme clarity.

God has given the command for Elijah to be sustained, but that command is going to be carried out through a complicated, zigzagging process. What have we seen here? Elijah is fleeing from a king who wants to kill him. God has been sustaining him, providing him with food through the ravens and with a brook that gives him water, but a moment comes when the water dries up, the ravens no longer come, and God says to him, “You know what, Elijah? Now there is a new stage. I am going to send you somewhere else so that you may be provided for.” When you look at Elijah’s life, you continually see him pass from victory to persecution and trial, then to victory, then to more persecution and trial. First comes the great climactic moment with the prophets of Baal, when Elijah destroys the prophets of Baal before the whole nation. Then he has to flee because they want to kill him: trial. Depression: he becomes depressed. Provision: God appears to him through an angel, gives him food, lays him down to sleep, strengthens him, and sends him out to walk. It is continually that process of trial and suffering. When he is in the widow’s house after the great victory, the widow’s son dies: crisis. The widow says, “You have brought me bad luck here,” but Elijah raises the widow’s son from the dead: victory. It is a life—and that is what the life of faith is like.

God allows things in life, and that does not mean His hand has withdrawn from you. It simply means that He is providing you with another experience for your spiritual growth, because the only thing that matters to God is producing men and women who are experienced in the processes of faith—people filled with the Spirit, people who know spiritual principles. God does not want spiritual children, and whenever a man or woman of faith is living the Christian life as God wants them to live it, there will be twists and turns, there will be complexity, but God will always provide. Moments will come when you will have to ask yourself, “And now, where will the next provision come from?” God already has it in mind. God already knows exactly where it is going to come from.

You may not know it, but at the precise moment God will tell you where it will come from. How many of us has God dealt with that way in life, when sometimes we are there at the crucial moment and do not know what to do, and God brings forth the answers—incredibly, somehow? And that is what happens here. God provides for His servant Elijah, and whenever we are entering a new stage of faith, growth, and God’s dealings with us, He tells us, “Do not be afraid,” because fear often arises then. The Lord says to the people in Luke 12:32, “Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased God to give you the kingdom; it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.” That is the foundation of every walk in God’s way. There are twists and turns; there are complexities, as there are in this season we are living through, but God says, “Do not be afraid.” My brothers and sisters, that “do not be afraid” is the foundation of our generosity toward God. He is our provider. The person who gives to the Lord must believe that God is their provider and that no matter what circumstances they are going through, God will provide for them. Because if you give to the Lord believing that everything depends only on you, that if you do not do what you have to do you will lack what you need, and that it is your intelligence that enables you to provide what you need... do you know what? You will never give to the Lord. God’s people—the man or woman of faith—give to God because they believe that God is the one who provides for them, and that if they give to God, God will immediately manifest His faithfulness in their lives in some way.

We give generously to God from a posture of trust that God will provide for us in every situation, and that is why we can give to God joyfully. “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want,” says the psalmist. “Though my father and my mother were both to forsake me, the LORD would take me in. I was young and now I have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging for bread.” That is the constant message of the Word; it is that divine provision. And the woman or man who knows God gives when called upon to give to God because they have understood that. If you do not believe that God provides in every circumstance and that God is generous toward His people, you will never enter into a measure of faith, into a movement of faith.

God provided for Elijah. At every point, as we have seen, Elijah never lacked anything. Why does biblical history record that episode... that life of Elijah? Was it simply so that we would know there was a man named Elijah who walked the earth and that God did great things with him? Or is it because He wanted you and me to understand that what He did with Elijah, He can also do with you?

Why did He choose not only Elijah to provide for, as He provided for him in the wilderness, but also a widow and a son—neither of whom is named? Because He, God, wants you to understand that God’s miracles of provision are not only for the anointed, the apostles, the prophets, the pastors, and the great leaders. No, they are for every person who believes. And God wants to show His people, from Genesis to Revelation, “I am your provider.” When you have truly died to your own will and intellect, that truth can dawn upon your life.

Look at the ministry of Jesus. We have two examples there. One was when He sent the seventy to preach the Gospel and told them, “Do not take a purse, a bag, a staff, or anything else. Leave the ATM card, the MasterCard, the Visa, and the American Express behind; leave everything behind, including the checkbook, and simply go with what you are wearing.” Why? Because He wanted to show them that whenever they undertook something in His name, He would always provide for them; He wanted to exercise their faith. God always wants to exercise His people’s faith. And sometimes He artificially removes all the scaffolding around us, all our security, so that when we are left suspended in midair, we will understand that, yes, He can provide. God sometimes constructs artificial scenarios around us because He wants to show us that, in the end, He is the only thing that matters. Why did God choose the Sabbath? Why did God choose that no work should be done on the seventh day? Because He wanted to leave humanity a paradigm: if you stop working for one day a week—14 percent, very close to the tithe, by the way—if you stop doing it once a week, your mind and your entire being will tell you, “I am going to lack what I need.” But if you honor the Lord through that exercise, you will see that you lack nothing and that God blesses you.

Why did God ordain that every 50 years, I think that was how it was, every 50 years a year would be left free—or was it every 7 years that the land was left for a year, right? And the 50th was the year of Jubilee, but every 7 years the land was left for a year without being tended or worked. And God told them, “I am going to provide for you for that year and for the following year while you plant,” because there was always a waiting period; God was going to provide for them for two years if they left the land alone. Why? Because He wanted a people of faith, and He integrated into their communal life that principle of depending on Him and not on themselves. Because our minds have trained us so thoroughly to think that if I do nothing, I will receive nothing, and if I give, I will not have enough. And God wants us, the people of God, to understand that it is not so, that we move in the power of God and the provision of God, and that if I honor God and put my life at risk for God, He is powerful enough to do everything that seems as though it would not get done unless I did it.

And so, so that we might continually refresh that principle, at 50 years, in the 50th year, He reset everything and said, “Let all the lands be returned to those who lost them, let all the money be redistributed, let all the slaves be freed, let all the servants be freed, let all debts be forgiven, and let us start over again from zero.” Wow, if Israel had had the courage to live that way, they would not have all the problems they have today. But the thing is that we lack faith; yet this is what God does: Jesus sends these men and women so that they may learn faith. And when the time comes to provide for 5,000 people at the end of the day, they tell Him, “Jesus, send those people away now so they can find food for themselves.” “No, you give them something to eat.” “Us? From where? We have no money; what’s more, there are no supermarkets around here, there is nothing, at this time of day. How are we going to feed them?” And He tells them, “No, look among yourselves.” Why? Because God always wants, brothers and sisters, to carry out His processes with His people. And He tells them, “Look in there.” And they come back with 5 loaves and 2 fish, and He then takes that contribution they give. The 5 loaves and the fish were totally immaterial, secondary. He could have done it with 5 stones and 2 sticks, but He wanted His disciples to spring into action; He wanted something to be drawn from the crowd, because God always seeks a contribution from us. He always performs His miracles in partnership with His children, brothers and sisters. Understand this: always.

Why doesn’t God rain down 3 million dollars from heaven right now so that this church can construct its building? Do you think He cannot do it? He can do that and much more. God could awaken some philanthropist somewhere who would say, “You know what, Roberto…?” And you know what? If He wants to do it, that would not be bad either; I’ll accept it. “I want to spare you all this trouble. You know what? Here is the money; don’t worry.”

You know what? God is interested in showing this church what it means to live by faith. God is interested in raising up giants—men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, people of faith. And He says to us, “What do you have? What is there among you…? Give Me a contribution. Give Me your demonstration that you believe Me, and I am going to do something thunderous, resounding.” I truly believe that we are living in this incredibly prophetic time in which God, as in the case of this woman from Zarephath, is telling us, “I want to do something in your lives, but first give to Me. Even though it seems that you are giving to Me outrageously, madly, irresponsibly, give to Me first, and you will lack nothing.” That is the motto of the man and woman of God: “I shall lack nothing.” And you know what? Many people’s resistance to giving generously to the Lord comes precisely from their lack of confidence that He will provide.

Sometimes we say in our minds, “If I give to the Lord, I will not have enough for myself.” But people of faith say, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” That is the foundation of everything the Lord wants for our lives. Luke, chapter 12, says, “You, then, do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink, nor be anxiously troubled; consider the ravens, which neither sow nor reap; they have neither storeroom nor barn, and God feeds them. Are you not worth more than the birds? And which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? Do not be anxiously troubled. The people of the world seek all these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.” Elijah had confirmed this again and again. Nevertheless, even so, he had moments of doubt, such as that moment when he fled from Jezebel, went into the wilderness, and said, “You know what, Lord? I am tired of this ministry. It is too much suffering, too much anguish, too much loss. I know that my time has come; kill me, take me out of this world, because I no longer have anything else to do.” Elijah was an anguished man. That is why, centuries later, the apostle James says, “Elijah was a man subject to passions like ours; nevertheless, he prayed, and God listened and shut up the heavens, and it did not rain.” He was speaking about the effectiveness of prayer, because Elijah was evidently a very psychological man, perhaps a man with unstable emotions. And he doubted at times. But one would think, “A person like Elijah, doubting? Impossible. If I did a fraction of what Elijah did, I would always feel secure.”

Look, we will always have to struggle with doubt. A life of generosity toward God will always involve doubt. The struggle against the natural mind is part of the process of faith. If there is no doubt, no struggle within you, no hesitation, no zigzagging, then it is not a process of faith. Sometimes we will believe, and sometimes we will doubt. And we will have to overcome doubt and act strictly according to objective principles and not according to emotions. Giving generously to the Lord is a matter of discipline. Ultimately, it is a matter of learning like the soldier, like the marathon runner who sets out and says, “I am going to reach the finish line,” and reaches mile 25 with nothing left except breath, willpower, and discipline. And that is what carries him to the finish line. And many times, in order to give to the Lord as He wants us to, we will have to go beyond our emotions. I tell you, as I was telling the brothers and sisters this morning, this is a time when practically everything I do, I do through discipline, through faith, and through believing in the purposes and principles of God. If I were a wiser and more prudent man, I would have shut down this process a long time ago, because these are not good times.

Some people wonder, for example, why Pastor Miranda does not wait two or three years for things to become clearer and then undertake this. Admit it: some of you may have thought that way; I have thought it too. But I continue because I believe this is the time, and because I move by faith. In these times, I say that I am like a pilot who is at an altitude of 30,000 feet on a pitch-black night, over the sea, with no point of reference anywhere around him, and the only things I have before me are the airplane’s instruments, the little needles and the instruments that tell me which way I must go. And I have to trust the instruments because I cannot trust my own sight, or my emotions, or anything else—only the instruments. And that is how tithing is, and that is how giving to the Lord is. If we wait until we always feel like tithing, we will never do it. Tithing is a discipline, for example; giving to the Lord is a discipline. It is like paying taxes. I know that there is much talk about giving to God cheerfully, but look, at the end of the day, when I have to give to the Lord, I do not ask myself whether I am happy or not. I simply give to the Lord, because I have to give, because that is the right thing to do, that is what the Bible says, and that is what blesses me.

And that is how you are going to pay the IRS. When the time comes to pay taxes, I do not know anyone who says, “Glory to God! How wonderful, April is here, March is here; now I can pay the IRS what I owe.” But you do it because the IRS has to be paid, and you know that the Bible speaks in those terms about giving to the Lord in that way. Look, for example, at Psalm 76, verse 11. It says there, “Make vows and pay them to the Lord; pay the Lord your God. Let all who are around Him bring offerings to the Fearsome One.” Pay the Lord your God. You know, God is fearsome, God is sublime, God is powerful, magnificent. The Lord must be paid. Why does the Bible speak this way? This morning it became absolutely clear to me, even though I had written these words and had preached them, that I had never dared to understand clearly that when we give the tithe, we are paying the Lord something we owe Him. Look at what Hebrews says. Centuries later, the writer of Hebrews speaks in the same terms. Because people sometimes say, “Well, these are things from the Old Testament.” Look at what the writer of Hebrews 7:9 says. Speaking of when Abraham paid the tithe and so forth, it says, “And, so to speak, through Abraham Levi also paid the tithe”—a descendant—“who receives tithes.” In other words, there is a purely legal transaction there. When Abraham gave the tithe to that priest, Melchizedek, he was paying the tithe to God. When people—the underlings, the subjects—gave tithes to kings in the ancient economy, they were paying the king; they had to pay him. And the tithe follows that principle that the sovereign is paid for the services he renders, and that is a sign of submission to him. And understand this, brothers and sisters, because many times I want to tell you that God is not going to strike you with lightning, as some people say, if you do not tithe. But I can tell you that you are involved in a transaction when you enter the divine, spiritual economy. You enter into dealings, into a tremendously powerful legal system, and there are things that happen and things that do not happen in our lives. There are things that are closed off in our lives because there is a lien, there is a debt, there is a legal document preventing something from happening.

There have been people who wanted to sell a house and, when they went to sell it, discovered that they could not because there was a document attached to the title that prevented them from selling it, since they first had to pay something to someone. How many of you know that? That is called a lien, and I believe that many times, in the spiritual world, things are bound and are not released because there are other things that have to be resolved. And the tithe is interesting because, again and again, it is a matter of—it is as though God is owed something, and it has to be paid to Him. And when it is not paid to Him, in one sense, there are things that remain held back. Why does God say in Malachi, “You have robbed Me”? And the people, surprised, ask Him, “How have we robbed You?” He says, “You have robbed Me because you have not given Me the tithe.” When do you rob a person? When you owe him something and do not pay it. If you look again and again, the language of the tithe is accompanied by this idea that it is a legal transaction, it is an act. And I believe, brothers and sisters, that many are not receiving more because legally they are not—the spiritual world operates legally; it is something that is clear: the world of demons and the divine operates according to legal principles. Notice that language of paying and of robbing God. It is very important.

Now, what happens? Elijah arrives in Zarephath. God tells him, “Go there, because there is a woman there who is going to feed you.” Perhaps Elijah thought, “Well, I hit the lottery. This woman is going to have plenty of money, a large house, a room especially for me, all the food I need, and at last I am going to make up for all this hunger I have endured with these blessed ravens that do not bring me enough food.” And what happens? When he arrives at the town square in Zarephath, what he finds is a poor, ragged woman ready to lie down and die. And he says, “Listen, Lord, You are playing a mean trick on me here. What You are doing to me is a cruel joke.” But God speaks to Elijah and tells him, “That is the woman I have chosen to give to Me.” Who knows whether God has chosen an immigrant community, one that is not prosperous or wealthy, to do something extraordinary and exceptional in this time? Who knows whether God is choosing this “poor” community, in quotation marks, to teach the wealthy people of Lexington and Newton and other places a lesson? Who knows whether God has chosen this community so that, through it, God may bring blessing and revival and food to many of His people? That is a question; I will simply leave it there.

Sometimes God has an ironic sense of humor. God always chooses what is small, weak, and unpromising to shame the strong and to provide. And God has a drama in all this; God never… God is not as interested in the outcome as He is in the process. That is why God’s processes are always multilevel and multifaceted. God always packs everything possible into His processes to get the most out of them, and that is why He chooses this widow, this young man, and why He chooses Elijah, because He wants to strengthen the widow and bless her—for who knows what was in that woman’s heart that caused God to choose her to be the protagonist of this drama. And He also wanted to bless Elijah and provide for him. And you know what? He also wants to glorify Himself. Because ultimately, all these things point to the glory of God. Everything we are experiencing is simply God sitting there on His throne, breathing in this burnt offering that we are preparing for Him there. Ultimately, if all this happens as I believe He wants it to, it will result in absolute glory for Him. Because there are many things that we experience at a micro level, but God is experiencing them too, and there are angels, demons, principalities, and archangels watching; God is there, Jesus is there, a multitude of witnesses watching our processes, which are often private. And neither this woman nor even Elijah knew that he was living out a drama that would serve as spiritual food for generations, generations, generations, nations, cultures, and centuries. And what he was experiencing was purely secondary; God was simply staging a drama so that it would be written down, so that it would feed generations throughout history, as it feeds us today in the twenty-first century, because God wants to glorify Himself, and all this, brothers and sisters, points to God’s complex processes.

In every process of faith and giving, the glory of God is involved. At the same time, God will also be dealing with us, stretching our faith as well as testing us, and when His people believe Him and take risks, God is glorified. We have now reached a certain point; God has blessed us, God has advanced us, God has given us much, brothers and sisters. God has blessed this congregation. I say without pride that very few congregations can worship the Lord as we did a little while ago, and this morning at nine o’clock. And I said, that same intensity cannot be repeated, but God made it possible. You have been blessed; God has given us many things. And we come here, and I believe that sometimes we are not aware of everything God has given this group of immigrants. And no, it has not involved that much pain; look, we have not been stretched. But you know what? God is saying, now you have received much, and I want your faith to broaden, and I want you to do something that will hurt and that will be… I want you to stretch; I want you to give Me an offering that will truly cost you. And He wants to stretch our faith. God wants us, after this process of faith, not to go back to being as we were before, but to reach another level.

When Lion of Judah entered into this process of coming here and struggled to construct this building, put it up, and do everything else, Lion of Judah never again became what it had been before that. In fact, not even the name remained: we were Central Baptist Church; today we are the Lion of Judah Congregation. He even changed our name, changed our identity, changed our ministry, changed everything. He multiplied its income, population, impact, level of ministry, reach, profile in the city, and prominence. He changed everything, brothers and sisters; we never again became what we were before coming here. And now I know that God wants to do the same thing. God now wants to take this church to another level, but for the glory He desires, a price must be paid. The cross always comes before the resurrection; before receiving, one must give; before being raised, one must die; before growing, one must decrease, as that chorus said. And Christian growth always comes through death and self-emptying. A generous people glorifies God. A withdrawn and comfortable people is a disgrace to God. In every process of giving to the Lord, profound spiritual principles are at work. And look at how this unfolds: Elijah asks the woman for a little water. She has water; it seems that water can still be found in the city. And since what he asks of her is so little, she immediately sets out to get it, because it is very easy to give to the Lord within the bounds of what is reasonable and possible, isn’t it? But that is not enough. Then Elijah asks her for something that really will cost her.

Why does the divine drama unfold that way, in two stages there? Again, because God is a very deliberate playwright. First stage: give me something to drink. No problem, of course. But you know what? Give me something to eat. That is where the problem arises: she has nothing to feed him. And that is where God wants to test her. She has to give food out of the very little she has, and here she resists, as we often resist. What can we learn from this? The following: God asks us, brothers and sisters, to give to Him in the zone of discomfort. I have often spoken about that zone of discomfort, where it hurts us. Where does God test His servants? Where does God graduate His servants? Where does God bring His servants into a new level of spiritual power? In the zone of discomfort.

Where did He test Abraham? He said to him, “Give Me your son, your only son.” At more than a hundred years of age, Abraham’s only son, his only hope of preservation and extinction, and God tells him, “I am going to put you in the zone of discomfort.” And He says to him, “Give Me your son, your only son.” And He sends him on a journey. Three days. Sweating, stewing in his own humanity. Knowing that a mountain awaits him, where he will have to plunge the knife into what he loves and adores most, to show that there is something more precious to him than his son: the God who gave him that son. And that if he sacrifices that son and gives him to the Lord, there are millions of sons in the depths of God whom He can give him. Because that is what the writer later says in Scripture: that in Abraham’s faith there was enough to believe that God was powerful enough even to raise Isaac from the dead. Because, again, God is my provider. I know that He is, and even if I give Him something I love, He will give it back to me.

You know, let me tell you something about that. You know—some of you know—that I have just finished writing a book that I hope will be published soon. It is already written, and we are already working on the cover and all that. Let me tell you something, a drama, something personal from my own life. When God called me to be a pastor in 1984, I, as you know, was working on my doctorate at the university. My desire was to write and to be a university professor, to move in the intellectual world. That was my longing, my deep desire, what I had wanted since childhood and what I wanted to be. And God told me, “Become the pastor of a tiny little church on a little corner in Cambridge,” and I had to die to my dreams. I am not telling you that so you will admire or respect me. Forget about that; God has given me a thousand times more. But I had to sacrifice something I loved and wanted. And I watched those books I wanted to write grow wings and fly away from me. But you know what? I said in my heart, if I am doing what God wants, and if this is from God—which I was not sure it was, because it could simply have been that I happened to be at a moment when this church needed a pastor, and I could do it, and since I have always met needs, I was taking on a need. I was not sure that it was actively from God, even though God had already told me that He wanted me to pastor this church. But by faith I surrendered it to Him, and I said, “Lord, You want me to pastor this church; I am going to do it,” and I had to set aside my desire to write for twenty-five years. And I always said, Lord, if You want to do it at some point, You will make it possible. And perhaps I will die and never be able to fulfill it, but I believe You are powerful enough to make those things possible. And this past year, with pain in my soul, because that book was born out of pain, a thorn in the heart, God gave me the ability, amid so much work and so many things, to write that book, which I know is the beginning of many others that God will allow me to write for His glory. Because when you give the Lord what you love most, without any guarantee that you will receive it back, but because you believe that God is your provider… Yet it took twenty-five years, brothers and sisters, for me to begin to see God’s faithfulness on that point. And there are other things God has told me in the same way that I still do not see, but I keep walking. If I die without seeing them, He will know how to answer me when I get up there to heaven, but I do believe that I will see them.

Sometimes I doubt and agonize, because when you give to the Lord and serve the Lord, just wait—wait for the salvation of Jehovah, because it will come at the proper time. And it is in that zone that God tests us, that zone where God graduates us. First, controversies with the devil must be resolved, with the demons, with Satan’s irony and cynicism and the controversy he has with the human race and with God. And there are things that must first be settled with him because, for some reason, he has some right here for a time; and there are things that can first be resolved only by dying, bleeding, and being crucified. Blood pays prices that neither you nor I understand. And it was not only Jesus who had to be sacrificed. And there are things that have to be done: first a price must be paid; one must bleed, one must die, one must become smaller so that they can be fulfilled against the devil, who is the most terrible legalist there is. Something has to be paid—the mysteries of the things of God. One must give in the zone of discomfort, where it hurts.

The widow gave everything she had, and Jesus said, “She has given more than anyone who gave millions of dollars.” That is why there are so many widows in the Bible, because widows were a symbol of everything that is given when there is nothing—only death and lack. God praises those women; He praises those figures who give out of nothingness, emptiness, poverty, the minimum, the negative. That is the conclusion, and when we give to the Lord in that zone of discomfort and sacrifice, that is where we are truly blessed, brothers and sisters. That kind of offering glorifies God greatly and unleashes God’s great blessing. The widow raises a rational and logical objection to Elijah’s request. If you had to give your child’s food to a man who showed up in the city square, without your knowing who he was, and who told you, “I am a servant of God; give me food,” look, brother, you would tell him to go fry potatoes somewhere else: this man is a charlatan. This man is shameless. And what mother could be accused of not being wise and prudent when she says, “Look, I cannot give you my child’s food, or my own”? And in any situation that would be reasonable. But look, many times when God wants to do something extraordinary, He asks something extraordinary of you. Sometimes He puts you to the test; there are times when one must give to God irresponsibly, scandalously.

You know when the Word says, “God loves a cheerful giver,” the word cheerful in the original Greek is a word that actually means something like crazy—hilarious, that is the word, hilarious—the word for a person who gives while roaring with laughter, a person who gives in a fit of madness. You do not give to God even with just a smile; you give to Him with roars of laughter. Oh, that the day would come when we would give to the Lord while roaring with laughter—laughing all the way to the bank, really. This woman raises a rational objection to him. Who can blame someone who says, “Look, I cannot give at this time. I would rather wait until things are better so that I can be generous and give. And until I have someone a little more trustworthy than this mere man, Pastor Miranda, asking me; if a little angel comes along and tells me, then perhaps I will give.” But it is an ordinary man saying, “Give to me first—to the Lord—and do not oppose Him with logic.” When we give, we frequently raise those kinds of objections, don’t we? Those reasonable reasons, if you will pardon the redundancy.

Why does the widow answer him, “Look, I cannot right now. I am going to die; I have nothing left”? Everything she tells Elijah is an image of negativity. The widow responds to Elijah with what I call a scarcity mindset. Do you remember when, some time ago, we preached the sermon about Joshua and Caleb? Joshua and Caleb and the ten spies. There was a division. I said that there are two mindsets among the people of God. One is a mindset of sufficiency and possibility, and the other is a mindset of scarcity and impossibility. And the people of God are always divided between those two dimensions. Joshua and Caleb represented the people who believe, who look at what is positive, who look at the God who is there, who look at the One who called them, who look at the One who promised; they do not look at the obstacles. Those who live according to scarcity look at the obstacles, look at the enemy, look at the height of the mountain, look at how closed the path is, look at the dryness of the desert, look at the impossibility of the undertaking, and look at the size of the giant. They look at how small they themselves are, and those people never receive what God has for them. Those ten spies remained in the desert; their skeletons remained there and are now part of the dust, of the desert’s dry earth. Joshua and Caleb—only two out of twelve—entered the Promised Land, because there was a different spirit in them, the Bible says.

How interesting: two out of twelve. Do you know how much that is? It is 1 out of 6, which means 16.6–17%, almost 20%. And this morning I shared something extremely interesting with the brothers and sisters, and it is this: with everything involving the banks and the negotiations, they have asked us for an immense number of figures and details—unbelievable. So many things. And thanks to the Lord, we have kept very precise records that have allowed us to give the banks everything they have requested from us. But one of the things they asked us for was figures month by month, week by week, for three months: how much is given and how many people give a certain amount of money, and we had to provide all of that. For the first time, we had to begin examining those things in that way, and look at what an interesting thing we discovered. And, by the way, let me tell you, brothers and sisters, you know what? I never look at who tithes in the church. During 24 years, 25 years of ministry, I have never sat down to look at a spreadsheet, and this time I had the spreadsheets in front of me, and obviously I did not look at who tithes in this church. Because I have always said that I do not want that to affect or influence the way I treat anyone, nor do I want that to contaminate my mind in any way, and I did not look. But we did look at numbers and things, and what came to light is interesting, because we have to make many charts.

Church stewardship experts always say that 20% of congregations—that 20% of the people in a congregation—generally give 80% of the money. And do you know what happened when we looked at the numbers? Twenty percent of this church gives 80% of the money. Twenty percent gives, and I said, wow, how predictable we human beings are. Now, I know that what I am saying is uncomfortable, brothers and sisters, but relax. I want to bless you. Just as 2 spies—only 2—had the vision to see what God wanted to do and to believe God’s promise, while 10 did not have that vision, and 2 were blessed—our grandson is named Caleb for a reason. And those are the people who make history; those are the people who leave their mark on the people of God. How many Joshuas are there in this church right now, and how many bear the names of the ten spies? Who knows, because we do not even know their names. They died in the wilderness, brothers and sisters. But 2 out of 12, and 2 out of 10, dare to believe Him. That is like a paradigmatic number that divides the people of God.

Throughout history—and how mysterious God’s processes, the processes of the Spirit, still are. Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you that if, for example, in this campaign everyone who can give were to give modestly, no one would have to make a sacrifice. Let me put it to you that simply. If everyone who ought to tithe did tithe, brothers and sisters, we would be one of the most powerful and wealthiest congregations in the entire region. And one of the things that concerns me as a pastor—and I will take this opportunity to tell you—is that our church continues to grow numerically, but it is not necessarily continuing to grow financially as it should. Now, what does that mean? It means that there is increasingly more pressure on the church’s services because we have to do much more with relatively less. The number of spiritual mouths increases, but the provision does not. And that then causes many people to feel, ‘Oh, they did not visit me; they did not call me; they did not do this or that for me…’ There is not enough. Although a lot of money comes in, it goes out just as quickly. God has given us many properties, many ministries, many things, and we make every penny go as far as possible. Nothing is spent here unless it is absolutely necessary; I can tell you that. But what happens if we continue this way, if more people do not grow spiritually and join the ranks of those who believe God and give to God? The church will grow in a certain sense, but the quality of its maintenance, its physical facilities, its services, its pastoral ministry—all these things—will suffer, and that is why you have to grow. Many of you have to grow quickly, because what God wants to do is great. Many of you have to break out of the shell; you are trapped in a straitjacket of unbelief.

And I encourage you in the name of Jesus—I am telling you this prophetically; I am speaking a prophetic word now—break out of the shell. That shell is suffocating you; it is not protecting you, it is suffocating you. It is a straitjacket. It is preventing your wings from spreading so that you can fly as God wants you to fly. Believe the Lord, stand on the Word of God, the prophetic Word, die to your reason, die to your comfort, and God will bless you. Do not live with a scarcity mindset. Do not look at the ugliness, the sinister aspects of your surroundings; look at the God who says, ‘I am the same in the storm, I am the same on a sunny day, I am the same in the wilderness, and I am the same in fertile land. I do not change. For Me, there are no difficulties; there are no impossibilities. Everything is yes, everything is possible, everything is easy, everything is present.’ That is the God you serve.

Elijah says to the woman—I am finishing now—‘Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.’ That ‘do not be afraid’ is a word, as I said at the beginning, a word for us. That is the divine response to the people of God again and again. ‘Do not be afraid. Remember this: Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Everything belongs to you.’ God tells you, do not be afraid; if you give to Me in faith, you will not lack later on. On the contrary, you will have more than you had before giving to Me. The question is, are we going to believe God? Are we going to believe God? That is always the question.

Elijah tells her, ‘Do not be afraid; make something for me first.’ I was telling you that this is a principle of a life of stewardship: God must be given the first. Proverbs 3:9: ‘Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your produce.’ Firstfruits, firstfruits…the first, the earliest. And what will the result be? ‘Your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.’ When you gave your firstfruits—if you have a concordance, one of those exhaustive concordances, look up how many times the word firstfruits appears in the Bible so that you may understand that this is an absolute principle. You have to say to God—seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things that people kill themselves trying to obtain will be added to you. Then look up Deuteronomy 26, verse 2: ‘Then you shall take some of the first of all the produce that you bring from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.’ What is the Lord saying? Look, take from what you have received, take the best, take what is choice, and bring it to the place where you are nourished, where the presence of God is, where you are serving, where you are receiving, and give it to the priest who is there. Today it is me; tomorrow it may be someone else—it does not matter. Give it to him, because that person will present it to Me. And the priest shall take the basket from your hand after you have said, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ When you give to the Lord, you acknowledge that He has blessed you and that He has been faithful. Many of us have come to a land that is not ours, and here God has blessed us. Here many of us have bought homes and found jobs. The other day, I saw a Central American brother with a terrific little gadget that you put right here, fiddling around, as we say. Right here with one of those cell phones, right? It looked very nice, very big; I even think it had a little jewel on it. And I jokingly said to Meches, ‘You know what? I assure you that back in his country he would not have one of those today.’ I said it only as a joke. You know what? That is the way it is, brothers and sisters. Many of us have been blessed in this land. We were born, you know, with nothing to our names, and God has blessed us and prospered us. And when we acknowledge everything God has given us, that is why we must give to the Lord, because we have lacked nothing along the way. And that is why God tells them, when you bring your firstfruits to the priest, say, ‘I declare today…’ Declare is a legal, documentary word: ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ In other words, every time you give to the Lord, every time you give your tithe or present an offering to the Lord, say, ‘Lord, I declare, acknowledge, and confess that I have been blessed by You, and that is why I give to You.’ Say it in your heart. Do not give while thinking, ‘Oh, what a nuisance; I have to give again.’ No. Recognize why you are giving: you have been blessed. And continue; look at that passage. Despite myself, I am not going to dwell on it, because there is so much there. Read it—chapter 26—all that person says when giving to the Lord. There is a principle of seriousness and integrity there: God gave to me, God called me, and I am giving as He has asked me to. Notice God’s generosity, the gratitude that tithing presupposes, and the act of giving generously to the Lord.

I am going to skip ahead; I am simply going to skip ahead. There is a great deal, a great deal, but I want to…I am about to finish. The result of all this, the result of all these things—and there is much more for another time; find the morning sermon, where I was able to finish it. What is the result of this process, which involves risk, death to self, death to our reasoning, giving by faith, acknowledging God’s generosity, giving in the discomfort zone, daring to believe the Lord? The result of this complex process reveals a universal spiritual principle regarding giving generously to the Lord. And it is this: Stand up; I want us all to read what follows. What is the result of everything we are saying? You can repeat it, and you are going to confess it with me, because I believe that nothing I have said here falls outside what is biblical. If I have preached something, if I have declared any principle that is not supported by Scripture, I beg you not to listen to me and to close your heart against what I have said. But if you cannot find a biblical counterargument to anything I have said, then open your heart to what I am telling you, because it is from God, and this is permeating you, supporting you, filling you for the rest of your life. If I have ever preached a sermon grounded in the Word of God, it is this one. If I have ever preached one in the Spirit of God, it is this one. If I have ever preached one in the prophetic spirit, it is this one.

The result of this complex process that we see here reveals a universal spiritual principle regarding giving generously to the Lord, and it is this. Say with me: ‘When we take a risk in order to give to God, when we give in the discomfort zone, when we give beyond our means, when we give to Him first, no matter how outrageous this act may seem to reason.’ Confess it: ‘God will bless us.’ Say it loudly: ‘God will bless us generously, beyond our expectations, and our faith will be strengthened.’

That is the word of the Lord for the León de Judah congregation in these times of ours, brothers and sisters. Lord, we worship You, we bless You, we exalt You, we glorify You, Lord. Father, I know that You want to mark us, Lord, with this Word. You want to mark us with this experience. You want to graduate us to a new level of power as a congregation, as individuals, as Your servants in prophetic times, Lord. Now let this Word enter the depths of our being, Lord, and may it be a beacon that guides our lives and our relationship with You. Break, Lord, everything that is not from You. And place in us only what conforms to the patterns You have established in Your Word. Bless this people, Lord. I surrender this Word to You so that it may bear fruit exclusively for the glory of Your name. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen, and amen, and amen. Glory to the Lord. Glory to the Lord. Do not let the enemy snatch that Word away from you.