Think of three connected rings. The first is “Asking and Receiving.” Jesus instructed his disciples on a model corporate prayer, which we know as The Lord’s Prayer. The Lord then spoke of a man’s persistent faith while knocking on a friend’s door at midnight. He asks his half-awake friend for three loaves of bread in order to provide a meal for an unexpected visitor. His friend tells him to go away, yet he remains shamelessly persistent.
The Lord speaks of “asking”, “seeking”, and “knocking” — degrees of persistence. “Everyone who asks receives”, says Jesus. If there is a qualifier, it is the willingness of the asker to persist, to wake up the neighbourhood if necessary. Jesus says that the man will not get out of bed and lend the loaves for the sake of friendship, but just to get rid of him! We are not meant to identify the man in bed with a reluctant God, but to be less passive and more active in our prayers.
The second connected ring is Believing and Receiving. Mark 11:20-24 records an account of Jesus cursing a fig tree. Since the tree had leaves, it should also have had some small, edible figs. But the tree was ‘all show’, which pictured the hypocrisy of the Lord’s people at that time. Passing the tree the following morning, the disciples marvel that it has dried up from the roots. Jesus tells them, in as many words, that they’ve not seen anything yet.
They were standing on the Mount of Olives at the time, and Jesus said that if they had God’s faith — not “faith in God” as in the KJV, but faith from God — they could tell the mountain to move and it would. The “whosoever” could have the “whatsoever” — another carte blanche statement from Jesus! The qualifiers are (a) that they must not doubt in their hearts — make any difference between fig trees and mountains (see Matthew 21:21); (b) they must receive in the very moment they believe (the NT Greek word refers to active receiving, taking what is offered); and (c) they must not hold any grudge against anyone but instead forgive any wrongs done to them by anyone. The blank cheque comes with a clean slate. The “mountain” in this passage pictures an obstruction.
The third ring is “Giving and Receiving.” This is seen in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, a church founded on the personal suffering of Paul and Silas. Paul writes from captivity in Rome to a church which is suffering under persecution and is poverty stricken. In 4:15 he points out that no other church had made a contract with him concerning “giving and receiving”.
In 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 and 9:1-8, Paul enlarges on this. Verses 13 and 19 are well known ‘proof texts’ — especially the latter. But the verse begins with “And” — a conjunctive, which connects it to the church’s sacrificial suffering. Quoting this verse in isolation proves the maxim: “A text without a context is a pretext.”
There are qualifiers here too: (a) sacrificial giving from willing hearts; (b) doing so cheerfully rather than grudgingly; and (b) following through on a past promise. When giving money, we sow scriptural promises that speak of sowing and reaping, one of which is 2 Corinthians 9:6.
What farmer would sow seed and not expect a harvest? What Christian would sow promises and not expect a blessing from The Lord of the Harvest? Preachers who maintain that we should expect nothing irk me as much as those who maintain that we should expect everything.
When giving, think of the three connected rings, and follow the inner prompts of the Holy Spirit, and you’ll not misdirect your money.