Strength to Strength – God’s Principles for Financial Increase

There were three factors that empowered the expansion of the early Church in the Book of Acts:

i) The message of the Cross and empty grave;
ii) The outpouring of the Holy Spirit;
iii) The release of financial resources.

Those same three factors continue to empower the expansion of the Church today.

Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children…

No matter our station or status, when we order our lives according to Biblical principles, our homes and God’s house goes from strength to strength with each generation.

The Principle of Generational Blessing

Our cultural narratives prize individualism – we like to imagine that our decisions and our decisions alone shape our identity and opportunities. The reality is our lives and opportunities are shaped significantly by the decisions of our parents and grandparents.

Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children…

Abraham and Sarah are a Biblical example of people who created generational blessing. Abraham lived around the end of the Early Bronze Age (circa 2000 BC) in a thriving, bustling, cultured city known as “Ur of the Chaldeans”. The land of the Chaldeans —also known as Mesopotamia — was located in modern-day Iraq.

Archaeologists refer to it as the cradle of civilization because it’s the place where ancient people first gathered into cities and established societies. From this settled and established place, God called Abraham and his wife Sarah to set out for a new land, to pioneer a new lineage, and to inaugurate a new stage in God’s redemptive purposes.

Hebrews 11:8-10,17-19
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham’s obedience and step of faith set in motion the establishment of God’s people in their own land. Joshua’s generation didn’t get there on their own – they stepped into an inheritance Abraham and Sarah set in motion 700 years earlier via their faith, obedience and commitment.

Four Characteristics of a Pioneer Spirit

1. People with a pioneer spirit have vision

Genesis 12:1–3
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

It was vision of a nation, land and significance, inspired by God’s promise, that caused Abraham to leave all that was familiar, comfortable and secure.

Hebrews 11:1
… faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Jesus’ word to us also inspires a vision to go make disciples, baptised, plant churches, accompanied by His presence. It’s this calling that prompts us to leave our own place of familiarity, comfort and security.

It’s the vision of what could do through our church that compels us to not rest on our laurels but to pioneer and take steps of faith into a God-prepared future.

2. People with a pioneer spirit have courage

Preserving the status quo doesn’t require any faith –it’s known. But to break ground, blaze a trail, expand our borders - that demands faith because there are a whole lot of unknowns.

Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

When God speaks to our hearts, fear will come up with one million and one excuses and reasons why not, but courage simply obeys.

By faith they put themselves into the hand of God and staked their lives, their livelihood, and their family on His promises.

To remain in Ur was safe and secure. When they stepped out in faith, they took the weight of their reliance off other securities and put the weight of their trust upon God and the Word He’d given them.

Matthew Henry
All that are effectually called resign up their own will and wisdom to the will and wisdom of God, and it is their wisdom to do so; though they know not always their way, yet they know their guide, and this satisfies them.

I don’t always know the way but I know the guide, and that’s enough for me. I don’t always have the coordinates but I know the character of the One who called me.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for – and our assurance is in the trustworthy character of the God who called us.

3. People with a pioneer spirit are willing to sacrifice

Hebrews 11:9
By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

Abraham had options.

Genesis 13:2
Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

He willingly embraced a lifestyle of sacrifice, so that long-term, his family would be established in a land God had promised.

Sacrifice is never a light thing, but nor is it an unusual thing for followers of Jesus. Jesus embodies the ethic.

John 10:18
No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

It’s this willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others that is at the heart of inheritance.

Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children …

An inheritance is when you receive something, that someone else’s sacrifice produced. Inheritance is a Biblical idea, because the ultimate good man, Jesus, left an inheritance for us. He worked, he sacrificed, he paid a price, so that we could freely receive.

We become Christians by receiving an inheritance.
We become like Christ by leaving an inheritance.

4. People with a pioneer spirit trust God

The author of Hebrews jumps forward to a scene recorded in Genesis 22. Abraham, having received the promise of a son with the birth of Isaac, is now tested when God asks Him to offer up Isaac.

Hebrews 11:17–18
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

For Abraham, the offering God asked Him to give was a test. It was a trust test.

Hebrews 11:19
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham resolved … God is able!

Genesis 22:11–14
But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

Because he was willing to trust God, God revealed to Abraham provision that before he had been unable to see. Abraham named the place “The Lord will provide”.

Whenever we trust God in faith by bringing an offering He has asked for, even when it doesn’t make sense in the natural, we end up with a testimony.

The place where Abraham trusted God, is the place Abraham learned the Lord will provide.

2 Corinthians 9:7–8
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Every time we bring an offering by faith we make a statement – God is able and I trust Him – He will find a way to fulfill His promise toward me.