Giftings from God (5)

Chapter 4

Gifting from  God

Exodus

31 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

4 To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

5 And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

6 And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;

7 The tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,

8 And the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense,

9 And the altar of burnt offering with all his furniture, and the laver and his foot,

10 And the cloths of service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office,

11 And the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do.

God had called certain of the people of Israel to build and design that which He desired, and with that calling came a gifting, which is identified as being filled with the "spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,..."

There was a very specific man - Bezaleel who was called to accomplish the various tasks assigned by God for Israel, and he would be accompanied by another man named Aholiab, which was also given wisdom to complete the given assignment from God.

It needs to be understood that the children of Israel had been slaves. There was little if any work in Egypt that would have produced the type of skill needed to make the various pieces of furniture and implements God required for worship. That included the garments that would be associated with Aaron and the general priesthood. That means God had to provide the wisdom and skill to certain people to perform these tasks.

The takeaway from this is God fills all real believers with His spirit, and part of the purpose fo that is in order for them to have the wisdom and skill needed to accomplish what God has given them to do while on the earth. Those who are true Christians, by faith, can tap into that wisdom and knowledge in order to fulfill their God-given purpose.

In James we are encouraged to do just that. In chapter 1 it says this:

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

If we really believe we are called to build wealth or be successful in this life for the sake of God, His people, and His kingdom, all we need to do is ask in faith in order to receive that which we lack. We must do so believing God is more than willing to answer our prayers. If we don't believe when we ask for wisdom, as James concludes, we are double minded and unstable in everything we do. We must remain steadfast and move foreward with the belief God will give us the wisdom we need for whatever we put our hands to on His behalf.

All of this is to say it comes by grace from God. Without Him we can do nothing, but with Him we can do all things. It has nothing to do with something inherent in ourselves, but God's gifting.

This doesn't mean we are to sit around and somehow this mystical transmitting of knowledge will enter into us. What it means is we are to pursue our callings in this life, and work to become experts in it. In that pursuit of understanding in our chosen fields, God will help us to obtain the needed wisdom for success. It will be up to us to apply that wisdom, but we are still to ask for and operate in light of the fact He will give it to us if we truly believe. Acting in faith upon that believe is what studying and becoming experts in our specific area of service represents.

Action will follow faith, and if we believe He will give us wisdom, we can trust that which we learn will be applicable and relevant to our success.

Successful service must be understood to have been initiated by God, and is a gift to be embraced and appreciated as we go about doing good and providing quality service to our customers.

From within to without

There's an interesting law related to God we must learn. That which He gives us within will be increased when we share it with others. That gift we have been given to serve will expand and enlarge to as large of a territory God has called us to serve in. What needs to be grasped is the more we pour out of ourselves, the larger we'll grow, but also, God replace all of that with more. In essence, we can become an inexhaustible source of service if we embrace the fact God is inexhaustible, and will bless us with His endless resources when we give everything we have without ourselves in serving others.

God gives us feedback to our response to His giftings in us.

Deuteronomy 8

11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

What He's saying is we have been given gifts from God to be productive and successful in our pursuits. But the bottom line is He's the one that has given us power to get wealth, and starts from within and works its way out practically into the world.

When God multiplies that which He has given us because of our faithful service on His behalf, we aren't to get prideful and start to forget who it is that gave us this power and blessings. If we do, as we are admonished, we will perish.

Remember, all of this is not only for the purpose of us generating revenue and building up our personal wealth so we can get more and more stuff. The goal is so we can be part of establishing God's kingdom on earth. We are to build up our assets in order to share that with others. That's also part of what is within being worked out. That's part of what it means when we are told to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling."

Look at what Philippians 2:12-13 says:

12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

It doesn't get much clearer than that. God is working within us it says, according to His good pleasure, which is a reference to building His kingdom on earth. That is His good pleasure. But we are to work out that which is within us with fear and trembling, meaning with deep respect and faithfulness to discharge that we have been put in this world to accomplish.

When I mentioned sharing with others above, I'm not primarily referring to just passing out free food and other goods to people. That has its place, but it's limited in its long-term effect and includes strict guidelines in the Scriptures. It is always meant to be only a short-term, temporary measure for those that truly have little or nothing. It was never meant to bring about the welfare state we now see.

What really changes the world for the better is for the people of God to be productive,  sharing with others the fruits of that productivity, and to give resources to those that are able to teach them to do likewise.  

As far as this relates to those called to build wealth and achieve success, it starts with a birthing within us and works its way out to become a practical reality. God is the source of that birthing, and we need to always acknowledge that by reaffirming He is the one that has given us the power to build wealth, and honor Him by sharing that wealth to establish His covenant.

We never have to be concerned about lacking anything needed to accomplish our purpose. What flows out of us will be replaced by more.

Once this process begins, we shouldn't let anything come between us finishing what we started. The only exception is when we're discovering the best way to do things via trial and error, and we find we have to make some adjustments to generate the best results. Unless there's something very clear that requires us to rethink the direction we're heading in, we should continue on our work until it's completed.

I'm talking about major things here, not minor adjustments in how we do things in order to reach our overall goal. Those types of adjustments can happen moment to moment in a business. I'm talking about the end you're striving to reach. Only new data that requires a significant shift should cause us to change direction in a big way.