A humourous story on giving....
The stingy uncle
"A little girl told this story about her uncle and aunt. She said, "My uncle was the stingiest man I have ever known.
All his life, every time he got paid he took $20 out of his paycheck and put it under his mattress. Then he got sick and was about to die.
As he was dying, he said to his wife, "I want you to promise me one thing."
"Promise what?" she asked. The uncle said "I want you to promise me that when I’m dead you’ll take my money from under the mattress and put it in my casket so that I can take it all with me."
The girl’s letter went on with the story. "He died and his wife kept her promise. She went in and got all that money the day he died and went to the bank and deposited it, and wrote out a check and put it in his casket."
I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 5:15 "As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return, To go as he came, and he shall take nothing for his labor which he may carry away in his hand"
Some quotes on giving....
Billy Graham
"If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every area of his life"
Selwyn Hughes
"Remember this - you can't serve God and money but you can serve God with money"
John Wesley
"I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity"
Jim Elliot
"He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose"
Corrie Ten Boom
"I have held many things in my hand and I have lost them all but whatever I have placed in God's hands that I still possess"
Here is another account of how we can sharpen our spiritual senses and increase our spiritual authority through prayer and fasting....
In Mark 9:17 we read the account of a father who was exasperated with the disciples for not being able to cast out a mute spirit. Not only was it a mute spirit it was a spirit which caused convulsions and fits.
Jesus was approached by a father whose son was having a mute spirit. The amazing thing was that the father knew that the son was spiritually demon possessed.
This was the cry of the father to the Lord, "Then one of the crowd answered him and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit". In 9:18 the father described the condition of the son "And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not"
The father told Jesus that this condition was evident since childhood and the force that came upon the son was supernatural and beyond man's power to stop.
Mark 9:22 "And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us"
Jesus then gave the clues to why His disciples could not cast out the violent spirit:
1. Faith. Mark 9:23 "Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him to believes."
The father had the faith for he shouted in verse 24 "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!"
2. Prayer and fasting. Faith was essential but there was another action that activated great faith for the working of miracles and this was what Jesus revealed to the disciples after He successfully cast out the mute spirit in verse 26 "Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him And he became as one dead....."
In Mark 9:28 the disciples was astonished and asked the Lord "And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" Jesus replied in verse 29 "So He said to them, "This kind can come by nothing but by prayer and fasting"
Did the disciples have faith? Yes they had otherwise they would not have attempted to cast out the mute spirit.
Did the disciples have the power or the authority? No they did not as they were not fasting and praying that day.
A precious lesson to me personally that prayer and fasting increases our spiritual sensitivity and releases the power to cast out demons!~
