Work, save, and give. But the most important thing is give. Ashley and Carlie explain the true purpose of giving and how it can completely change your financial picture.
Transcription
Announcer: Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life. Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley: Hello, and welcome to Abundant Life. We’re so glad you joined us today in the lounge. And we’ve got an exciting program for you today. We’re talking about how to attack lack and how to receive the prosperity of the Lord. Praise God. And we’ve been talking about a lot of different things. We’ve been talking about the work of your hand, talking about putting your hand to something and being diligent. Praise God. Giving God something to work with. We’ve been talking about your stewardship. We’ve been talking about how do you steward what you already have? Don’t just spend everything you’ve got, make sure you’ve got some sort of plan, make sure you have some sort of savings, and things like that.
And now today we’re going to talk about probably the most important thing. Paul talks about faith, hope and love, and he says, “But the most important of those is love.” Well, for me in finances, it’s work, save, and give, but the most important thing is give. If you don’t understand the power of giving, if you haven’t got a plan about giving, then you’re always going to struggle financially and you’re never going to prosper God’s way. That’s just facts right there. That’s just how it works. Now, for some of you, you may give, but you don’t really understand the power of giving. Maybe you don’t really like to give. Maybe you’re one of these people that don’t give, maybe someone who gives too much. Who knows?
But what I’m here to tell you is, is giving is so important. If you get a revelation and can understand the true nature, really what giving does, the true purpose of giving, if you really get revelation of that, I tell you what, it will change your financial picture. It’s changed our picture. Giving for us has changed so much. And when we got an understanding of the right and wrong ways to give and what giving does, I want you to know, it really has changed our financial picture. I’m only saying this because we’re talking about finances, but we’re debt free, we were debt free in our 30s. That means house, as well. Paid our house off. We’ve got a nice house in Colorado Springs. All our cars are paid for. We’ve got no debt. We’re able to give people things and we’re able to contribute financially to our ministries and to our church.
Carlie: Yeah. Support missionaries.
Ashley: Support missionaries and sponsor children and all these types of things. And giving has really been a major key. So, it’s been.
Carlie: Not just giving, but purposeful giving.
Ashley: Purposeful giving.
Carlie: Because when we got married, we had like two pennies to rub together, but we always gave our 10%. Right? We always gave our tithe because that’s what we were taught in church. Even though we had no money, we were always givers. It was in our heart to give, so we always gave our 10%. But then, as the years went by, we really didn’t do anything beyond that. We didn’t really do anything… every now and again, not because we weren’t generous, but because we just didn’t really have a plan. We didn’t really understand the principles and the power behind giving. And it wasn’t until we had some understanding, some teaching and started to purposefully give that we really started to see financial breakthrough. Right?
Ashley: Yeah. Totally. And if you don’t understand, if you haven’t got a revelation on giving, then this is something you need to listen to. I’m telling you, this is something that’s… When you get revelation and understand the power of giving, you become a cheerful giver. I’m telling you what. That’s the difference between a cheerful giver and someone who’s giving begrudgingly. And you know what? We joke sometimes and sometimes I’ll take up the offering at our church… It’s not our church, but we go there. We attend that church. And sometimes the pastor asks me to take up the offer, and I say, “You know what? At this church, we love all givers, not just cheerful givers. We love all givers.”
Carlie: We’ll take money from anyone.
Ashley: If you’re miserable, we’ll still take your money.
Carlie: [inaudible].
Ashley: No. That’s a little tongue in cheek. But the point is, when you understand the power of giving, it’s going to make you a cheerful giver, and if you’re the type of person who’s worried about giving, who’s always concerned about giving, worried about, “Is God trying to take my money? Is it going to lead to not having enough?” and things like that, you haven’t got the right perception of giving. You don’t fully understand giving. So, I’m telling you, this is where it’s going to be powerful. When you understand the power of giving, you understand how it works and why God set it up this way, then it’s going to free you up and you’re going to feel so much freedom. You’re not going to have the burden anymore, and you’re not going to feel like you have to give begrudgingly out of necessity. So, it’s powerful you understand this.
So, that’s where we’re going with this today, and we’re going to be doing this over a few programs. And you’re going to be blessed, I’m telling you. This is something that every believer should get an understanding of. It really is. So, the first thing I want to look at today is giving is contrary to our natural thinking, and this is important to understand because this is one of the biggest roadblocks I find for giving. Even might [crosstalk] personally.
Carlie: Especially if somebody’s in lack, it doesn’t even make any natural sense to start giving away what you don’t even have enough of yourself.
Ashley: That’s right. So, one of the things we’re talking about is attacking lack, is attacking poverty in your life, attacking lack, and how can giving be the key to attack ign lack? That seems counter-intuitive.
Carlie: Backwards to world.
Ashley: It’s backwards. Well, this is the thing. Giving does not make sense to the natural mind. Giving does not make sense to your natural way of thinking or to your flesh. But here’s the thing. When you got born again, everything changed. You changed address. In Colossians three, I believe it’s Colossians 3:13, it says, you know what? You were taken from the kingdom of darkness-
Carlie: Colossians 1:13.
Ashley: Colossians 1:13. Thank you. Colossians 1:13 says, “You were taken for the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the son of his love.” So, when you get born again, what happened to you was you changed address spiritually. Your spirit now has a new address. You now live in heaven. That’s why it says you are seated with him in heavenly places.
Carlie: You’re citizens of a new kingdom.
Ashley: You’re citizens of heaven. You’re ambassadors on loan to the earth. There’s so many verses like this, talk about how you… I Corinthians 6:17, I Corinthians chapter six, verse 17, says, “You’re one spirit of the Lord.” So, your spirit is now living with the Lord. II Corinthians 5:20, “We are ambassadors for Christ here on earth.” So, the world is no longer your address. You changed address. 10 years ago, we moved from England to America. We changed address.
Carlie: We did.
Ashley: We moved from the kingdom of Great Britain to the kingdom of America, if you like.
Carlie: And there were some different rules in this kingdom.
Ashley: There are some different rules-
Carlie: Like driving.
Ashley: Like driving. I did find that out. So, we’d been over here a few weeks and for 15 years, or however long it’d been, I was used to driving on the left, and over here, I’m taking a drive on quite a busy street, a three lane highway. And I’m driving along, and I look up and I see three cars coming straight on towards me.
Carlie: How’d that work out for you?
Ashley: Well, first of all, actually, I thought, “What are these three crazy people doing driving on the wrong side of the road?” Then I realized it’s me. I’m actually on the wrong side of the road. I’ve been so used to driving on the left, I’m driving on the wrong side of the road. So, I did like a U-turn in the middle of the road. At the next stop light, they pulled up next to me and they told me I was number one, which I thought [crosstalk].
Carlie: Yeah. They gave me a special wave.
Ashley: They gave me a special wave. I mean, even now it’s tricky. I’ve been so long sitting on the right side of the car. I was pumping gas every day and I opened the passenger’s door, I was on my own.
Carlie: We went to get on the wrong side.
Ashley: Opened the passenger’s door. I actually sat in the car, I turned around, the steering wheel’s gone. No steering wheel. The steering wheel was on the other side. Because I was so used to sitting on the right side of the car that I was like, maybe people would think I’m crazy.
Carlie: They’re watching you.
Ashley: [inaudible] what’s this crazy person sitting in the passenger seat? So, I made an excuse, just opened the glove box, looked around there, said, “Aha, the owner’s manual.”
Carlie: Of course. That’s what you were looking for.
Ashley: I was looking for the owner’s manual. That’s what it was. [inaudible] got back out, walked around, got on the other side of the car. But my point being, when you are used to doing something a certain way for so long, it becomes natural to you, and it becomes comfortable, and it becomes the norm. But when you change address, when you change kingdom, there’s new ways of doing things. There’s new rules, there’s new ways of doing things.
Carlie: But you could have been driving down the wrong side of the road and figured out, “Well, I’m just going to drive the way I want to drive. I don’t want to drive on the other side of the road. I want to drive the way I’m used to driving in England.”
Ashley: I’d be more comfortable driving that way.
Carlie: Because it’s how I feel comfortable.
Ashley: I’d feel more natural. But you know what? I’d be very frustrated.
Carlie: You’d be dead probably.
Ashley: Probably in a wreck or maybe even dead.
Carlie: Right?
Ashley: It wouldn’t Be good. So, I had to adapt to the new way of doing things in America when I left England because I changed address. And it doesn’t matter, like Carlie said, it doesn’t matter if I felt more comfortable driving that way, or I didn’t understand why America drives on the other side to England, I just had to get with the program and follow that way of doing things, follow those principles.
Carlie: If you want good results, you have to get with the program.
Ashley: That’s right. Amen. If I want good results. And it’s exactly the same in the kingdom of God. When you get born again, you got a new address, you change kingdom. And here’s one of the main reasons why the body of Christ struggle with the promises of God. At Terradez Ministries, our mission, if you like, is empowering believers in the promises of God. We want believers to have everything God’s got for them. We want you to be able to walk in the fullness. We want you to walk in the abundant life, the John 10:10 life. Jesus came to give you life and life to the fullest, life abundantly. And we want you to experience that. And this is one of the biggest things, biggest hindrances to experience abundant life, is you don’t realize, people don’t realize they’ve changed address and they have to do things by the kingdom way of doing things, rather than the world’s way of doing things.
Carlie: And I think until we understand that, we’ll find ourselves in a place of frustration.
Ashley: Frustration and-
Carlie: Things just doesn’t seem to work out.
Ashley: … things don’t work out. And there’s so many examples of this, the fact that the kingdom of God works opposite to the world. If you’ve got an enemy, the kingdom of God says love them, but that doesn’t make sense naturally to our natural way of thinking. That doesn’t make sense to our natural minds. If you want to be the ruler of all, the greatest ruler has to be the servant, has to be the greatest servant. Again, that’s opposite to the world’s way. You want promotion, you have to serve. You want to be first, you’ve got to be last. There’s so many examples. You’ve got an enemy, you love them. Someone wrongs you, you forgive them. Someone takes your coat, give them your tunic too. We don’t ave tunics anymore, but whatever that is. If someone asks you to go a mile, you go two miles. Et cetera, et cetera.
This is opposite to the world’s way of thinking. And it’s the same with finances. If you want to get ahead financially, then you have to give, and that’s opposite to the world’s way of doing things. Proverbs 11:24, if you’ve got a Bible, look at Proverbs 11:24. Proverbs 11:24.
Carlie: I gotcha.
Ashley: I could quote it, but I might get it wrong.
Carlie: It says, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more. There is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”
Ashley: That’s right. And the one translation says there is one who gives, yet increases more. And there’s one withholds more than is right and it leads to poverty.
Carlie: The next verse is really good, as well. It says, “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.”
Ashley: Amen. So, this is contrary to our natural thinking, but it’s the kingdom of God where I think… Another great verse is Acts 20, verse 35. Acts 20, verse 35. Luke is actually quoting Jesus here, and Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” There’s a greater blessing in giving than receiving. And again, contrary to the world’s way of thinking, contrary to our natural brain… So, that’s why we have to not let our natural mind, our natural logic get in the way of a buying God’s word and doing God’s word. That’s why we walk by faith and not by sight.
Now, we’re not talking about disconnecting your brain and just doing stupid. That’s what some people make the mistake, and they’re just like, “Disconnect brain, I’m a Christian now. I don’t have to follow any logic and just be crazy and do all these crazy things.” No, we’re not talking about doing that, but we’re talking about the kingdom of God principles aren’t going to make sense to your logical mind a lot of the time. Maybe it’s time to give, and maybe you’ve been there, and you feel in your heart or the Holy Spirit prompting you to give a certain amount but your mind saying, “Don’t do it. You’re going to die. You’re going to starve.”
Carlie: You’ve got too much lack to give.
Ashley: You’ve got too much lack. You can’t give out of the lack. Whatever it is, you can’t afford to give. Your natural mind will say you can’t afford to give. The kingdom of God would say you can’t afford not to give. So, that’s why you have to realize things have changed now. Now you live at a different address. Now you’re born again, you live in a different address. You have to follow-
Carlie: You have a different source of provision.
Ashley: Amen. You have a different source of provision and a different way of doing finances. You have to follow the kingdom ways of doing things. Otherwise, you’ll be frustrated. And if you’re a frustrated Christian at the moment who isn’t walking in all the fullness of God, who isn’t walking in the promises of God, whatever area, if it’s in your finances, if it’s in your healing, in your health, if it’s in your behavior, if it’s in your righteousness, I can guarantee you at some point, you haven’t connected the dots in terms of how to live the kingdom way and walk by faith rather than walk by sight. That’s usually where the hindrance is.
Carlie: That’s true. And giving’s an act of faith. I mean, we’ve mentioned this scripture a number of times in previous programs here, but I’m going to read the scripture before. So, we’re looking in II Corinthians nine, and we’ve read verse eight before, but verse seven actually says, “So, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” Right? But the next verse starts with, “And God is able.” Now originally, the punctuation and the numbering of the verses wouldn’t have been in the original texts, it would have just continue through. So, God loves a cheerful giver and God is able. When we give, it enables God to make all grace abound towards us so that we might having all sufficiency in all things have an abundance for every good work. So, it’s like giving unlocks something in the spiritual realm that enables God to get abundance through us.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: And we experience this ourselves when our daughter Hannah was… She was really sick, she was born very sick with an auto-immune disease, and you can actually see our whole testimony and our website as well. It’s fascinating if you have time to go there and watch it. She was basically sent home from the hospital to die at three and a half years old. And instead of taking her home, we took her to a conference, and at that conference, we just felt like… They weren’t even preaching on healing. Right? But we were just there because we felt like that’s where we were supposed to be. We had Hannah with us. And she’s dying. I mean, nothing’s changed. As the preacher’s preaching, and Ashley turns to me and says, “I feel like we’re supposed to make a significant gift in the offering.” And he says, “How much do you think we should give?” And I was thinking about this for a minute, and I think you said, “I feel like we should give everything.”
Ashley: Give our savings away. Give our savings away at the time.
Carlie: Right. And you have to understand that we did not have a huge abundance. We had an overdraft that we had to pay back. We had a very small amount of savings. To us, it was huge. For other people, it wouldn’t have been… In our situation it was really big.
Ashley: It’s relative. For us, it was a very big deal. It was one of those moments where the world stopped spinning, and I was like, “This is like a big deal.”
Carlie: It was like a faith challenge. It wasn’t like we couldn’t pay for Hannah’s healing. Okay? That wasn’t the point. But it was almost like the Lord was speaking to us in that moment saying, “Can you trust me with money? Because this is the least of all things.” This was a faith test for us. And little did we know what was going to happen the next day. Right?
Ashley: Yeah. Yeah, the next day, our daughter Hannah received prayer and she was miraculously healed. And that was in 2006. And she never had any doctor’s treatment, never had one piece of medication. She was on an electronic machine that was pumping food directly into her. And we disconnected that, and she never had that plugged back in again.
Carlie: She’s 15 now.
Ashley: Now she’s 15 and 100% healthy, never had any issues. And like Carlie said, you can see that video, it’s only about 20 minutes long, it’s on our website, Terradezministries.com, and then click on the About tab and you’ll see that video. You’ll be blessed. Get some Kleenex ready because it’s a tear-jerker.
Carlie: We cry every time.
Ashley: We cry. Yeah. But you know what? At the time, like Carlie said, we wasn’t paying for Hannah’s healing, I wasn’t trying to bribe God or anything like that. But it was like something had to change in my heart. I had to trust God with my finances. And finance is a great reflection, or a great mirror of where your heart’s at. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And what happens is, is where your money is, is often where your heart is. Ask people, if you’re a grandparent, if you’re a grandparent out there today, do you love your grandkids? And you tell me, “Yes,” and I say, “Could you show me how much you love your grandkids by your checking account, or your lack of?”
Because where your heart is, there your treasure is going to be. That’s where you want to invest. That’s where you want to spend your money. That’s where your money ends up going to, the things you love. If you’ve got a hobby, your money is going to go towards that hobby, whatever it is. So, God’s after our heart, rather than… He doesn’t need our money. I’m getting ahead-
Carlie: But when we give, it enables God to flow through us with resources.
Ashley: Amen. It brings it to another level of faith, another level of trust. Giving’s so important, and we’re just setting this up for you, if you like. This is another great verse. Remember, we’re talking about the power of giving and we’re talking about renewing our mind to the fact that now we do things the kingdom way, now we’ve changed address. We do things the kingdom way. And giving is a part of the kingdom’s way of doing things. Whereas, withholding is the world’s way of doing things. And like Proverbs 11:24 said, if you withhold more than is right, it actually leads to lack and leads to poverty. But if you give and scatter God’s way, then it leads to prosperity and it leads to increase. And Romans 12 is a great verse to really encapsulate this renewing of your mind. Romans 12:1-2 says, “I’ve beseech you therefore, brethren,” or sisteren.
Carlie: Sistern.
Ashley: Sisterhood. People. “by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” So, Paul is saying here, these are reasonable service. If you’re born again, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you should give yourself to God, give yourself as a living sacrifice. Jesus died for us and rose again. We should lay down our lives for him and be a living sacrifice for him. And then verse two says, “And do not be conformed to this world.” And this word conformed means, you know what? It’s being poured into the mold, being molded like, being conformed like, turned into. And that’s what will happen. If you do the world’s way of doing things, if you do things, especially in finances, but in every area, just like the world does it, you’ll be conformed into this way of thinking.
But Paul challenges us here and says, “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” So, how are we transformed? By the renewing of our mind, “that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” So, the will of God for you today is have your minds renewed so you can be transformed. So, really, to summarize this if you like, in this particular thing here, we believe we’re spirit, soul, and body. Okay? So, we are a spirit, we possess a soul, and we live in a body. And the spirit you, the part of you that spirit, if you’re born again, that is 100%, that’s done. You are perfect. you’ve got everything you need, praise God, in your spirit. You’re just like Jesus. I John four, I John 4:17 says, “As he is, so are you,” and people say, “Well, actually, that means in heaven. When we get to heaven, we’ll be just like Jesus.” But you read that verse, I John four, verse 17 says in this world. You know what? We are like Jesus [crosstalk].
Carlie: So, right now. Right here.
Ashley: Now, our bodies aren’t like Jesus. Our mind’s certainly not, and our emotions. So, what’s he talking about? He’s talking about our spirit. In our spirit, when you’re born again, your spirit becomes one spirit with the Lord, we’ve already read that scripture, and you are just like Jesus in your spirit. Your spirit. But you also have a soul and you also have a body, and your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. Your soul is your wheel, your choices and your emotions. And then your body is just your flesh. So, really, the deal is, if you renew your mind to conform to the spirit, if you renew your will to be like your spirit, then you’re going to see the power of God flow through you and you’re going to receive these promises of God, and you’re going to experience them. They’re already there in your spirit when you got born again. You receive fullness of God when you got born again [crosstalk].
Carlie: So, we’re not asking God to come down and do something, we just move what’s in our spirit into our flesh.
Ashley: Yeah. We just believe in what’s already happened in our spirit. It was a finished work when Jesus did that in our spirit realm, and now it’s a question of renewing our mind to the truth of who we are in God. And I’ll tell you what, it’s powerful. We could go off the rest of this lesson just talking about scriptures, about who we are in Christ and what we have in Christ because he’s so powerful. But I just want people to know that, as a real quick summary, is that’s how it works. You’ve already got it. Grace has already provided everything you need. Grace has provided your righteousness, it’s provided your healing, it’s provided your prosperity, but some people say, “Why aren’t I seeing it in the natural? Why is my body still hurting? Why are my finances still lacking? Why do I still need to attack lack? Why do I still have lack?” It’s because of the soul part of you hasn’t renewed itself to who you are in the spirit, and that’s a process, that takes time. It takes reading the word of God, renewing your mind.
I had one preacher put it this way. We need to brainwash ourselves with the word of God, with the truth. That’s the only type of brainwashing we need. Brainwash ourselves with the truth and our minds will actually conform to our spirit, which is the same as the Holy Spirit. We’re one spirit of the Lord, and we’re going to get everything God’s got for us come through and we’ll actually see it in our physical bodies or manifest in our physical lives.
Carlie: Amen. Amen.
Ashley: Make sense?
Carlie: That was good.
Ashley: I want to give you a quick summary on that. So, let’s look at some more things about Giving. We want to give you some practical things about giving and the power of giving. The first thing I want to tell you about is God is the biggest giver. If you don’t realize this, then you’re going to fall short. God is the biggest giver.
Carlie: God’s the biggest giver-
Ashley: God invented giving.
Carlie: … and the devil ]’s biggest loser.
Ashley: He’s the biggest taker. He’s the loser. He’s the biggest loser. That’s a show. Right? The biggest loser.
Carlie: Right.
Ashley: God is the biggest giver. And he invented giving. This is his deal. It’s not like he’s trying to take from you. Givers aren’t takers. So, he’s the biggest giver. John 3:16 says he loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God gave his best. He’s a giver by nature. That’s who he is. So, God is a giver. So, you never have to worry when God asks you to give something, you never have to worry about is he trying to take something from me? The reason God’s asking you to give is because he’s trying to get more to you. He’s actually the greatest giver, and givers won’t be out-given.
And I’ve got here Psalms 13:6. “He’s dealt bountifully with me. He’s got a bountiful spirit.” Proverbs 51:12. Proverbs 51:12 says he has a generous spirit. God’s spirit is generous. He’s a generous spirit. God is the biggest giver. He gave us everything. He gave us his son, he gave us his best, so he’s not going to withhold any good thing from us. So, when givers get around givers, they won’t be out-given. It’s very hard to be out-given. I can tell you story after story about some people I’ve had the privilege of spending time with who were big givers and they’re hard to out-give. One time I was with a preacher from Mexico, and he was a big giver and a very generous person. And I’d had a meal with him a few nights before, and I snuck the bill and paid the bill, made sure.
Carlie: The sneaky blessing.
Ashley: The sneaky blessing. I got the bill before he could even get it, and sure enough at the end, he said, “Who paid for that?” And the waitress pointed to me, and he said, “Oh.” So, the next time we was out, it was at a conference. A few days later, we went out to dinner, and there’s about eight of us at this table, and he… You have to know this man to realize his personality is [inaudible] larger than life, but as the server came over just to take our drink orders, he knew that I’d try and pay again. I was already thinking about it, because I love to give, and he loves to give to. So, givers don’t like to be out-given. He actually grabbed the arm of the server, and it was a guy, and pulled him in, and he said, “Listen to me, sunshine.” He said-
Carlie: I remember this.
Ashley: … “If you give the bill to any one of these clowns,” he said, “I will beat you.”
Carlie: Yeah, he was kind of tongue in cheek. He wasn’t really going to beat you-
Ashley: He’s very tongue and cheek. He was laughing.
Carlie: … but he was making a point.
Ashley: He was laughing, but the server was a young guy.
Carlie: He’s didn’t really know how to take it.
Ashley: He was [inaudible] nervous [inaudible]. The guy said, “No, I mean it.” He goes, “I will beat you [inaudible].”
Carlie: I think he actually said, “I’m going to take you outside and beat the tar out of you.”
Ashley: He said, “I will beat the tar out of you.” He’s originally from Texas.
Carlie: It was so funny.
Ashley: “I will beat the tar out of you.” So, we all said, “Well, I guess he’s paying then, because we don’t want to see anyone beaten.” But this has happened time and time with different ways where people fight over getting the bill for a restaurant. People will buy each other things, people will pay for each other’s things. When you’re around givers, givers do not like to be out-given, and if someone’s a giver by nature, they love to give. Like I said, they don’t like to be out-given. And God is the biggest giver, so you can’t out-give God, and you don’t have to worry about God taking from you. He’s a giver, not a taker.
And you know what? Givers also, they often have givers as their best friends. The people that surround them are often fellow givers because if you’re a giver, you don’t want to hang around a taker because a taker is going to… I tell people I love to give until people start to try and take from me. So, givers don’t like to be around takers because takers are self-centered, takers are inward-looking, and they’re thinking about themselves. Whereas, givers are thinking about others. So, God has givers… That’s why God loves cheerful givers. He loves to give and bless, and he loves his people to give and bless other people. We’re showing God’s nature, if you like. We’re extending his kingdom.
In fact, Deuteronomy 8:18, Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse 18 says, “Remember the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which is [inaudible] this day.” So, God gives us the power to get wealth so he can establish his covenant and he can show the world how much he loves them. And that’s one of the powers of giving, is showing the people. So, God’s the biggest giver. God loves givers, loves cheerful givers. And givers have givers as their best friends. And you know what? They’re not out-given. So, God’s not a taker, he’s a giver by nature.
Carlie: And this principle doesn’t just apply to finances. We can give with our time, we can give with our affection, we can give of ourselves and of our forgiveness towards other people. We can be givers in our relationships, in how we relate to people. Givers of our possessions. I mean, this simple principle works in many different areas.
Ashley: Definitely. It really does. Generosity, being generous and being a giver.
Carlie: Having a generous spirit.
Ashley: And being a giver. That’s right. In this series, we’re talking about finances, we’re talking about attacking lack, and we’re talking about receiving the provision of God. So, we’re looking at this in the financial realm, but yeah, ultimately, you can give in so many different ways. And I believe God’s very nature is giving. God is love, God is good, and God is generous. It’s part of who he is. That’s part of his nature. That’s the very part of his core, if you like. So, he’s not a taker, and he loves to give. So, you never have to worry when you’re giving to God, you don’t have to worry about him taking from you. And God won’t be out-given, so he’s going to give back to you. Praise God. So, we’re going to carry on with some more practical points about giving, about when to give, when not to give, and the right types of giving and things like that. But we’re at a time this time. We would love to pray for you before we let you go.
Carlie: Time goes so fast.
Ashley: Amen. Time flies when you’re having fun.
Carlie: Yep.
Ashley: So, let me pray for you. Father God, I thank you for everyone watching today. I thank you for everyone listening. I thank you, Lord, that you are the biggest giver. And I thank you that you love to give to your children, you love to give to your people. And I thank you, Lord, that we can trust you in our giving. And I thank you that when we give, Lord, let me give to you in all different ways, I thank you, Lord, that you give and you love to give. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that you’ve set it up this way. Thank you that we have the honor to be able to give to you and give to your work. And I thank you, Lord, would you give us the power to get wealth so we can help you establish your covenant on earth? Amen.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Praise God. I thank you, Jesus. Well, thank you for being with us today. We’ll be back real soon, but until next time, remember, don’t just live a normal life, live the abundant life. We’ll see you next time.
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Ashley: Hey, I want to thank the partners of Terradez Ministries. Thank you for your support. You know what? By your financial support, we’re able to go out and touch the world for Jesus. We’re seeing people’s lives turned around. We’re seeing people healed. We’re seeing people set free. We’re seeing people born again. And your gifts are enabling us to do that. So, we want to thank you and thank you on behalf of all the people we’re touching. Praise God. Thank you for your partnership. We appreciate you. We’re praying for you. We know you’re going to increase as you sow seed into this ministry, so we’re praying for you regularly. Thank you for your partnership. We love you all.
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Ashley: Where our treasure is, our hearts will be also, and what we treasure, what we love, we will put finances towards. And then what we put our finances towards, we’ll end up loving more.
Announcer: Join us next time for the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.