Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – generosity is a heart issue and flows in joy. Whilst generosity never seeks to get, in the economy of the Kingdom it is the soil that realises the harvest of the extravagance of heaven. God desires to be so deeply extravagant towards us but He can’t, He doesn’t get His way, the nature of His being, love, mediates the release of His desire. God is never postured in any other way than to pour His extravagance upon us, the question is are we postured to say “yes” to His outpouring?
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 TPT
[6] Here’s my point. A stingy sower will reap a meager harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest. [7] Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving-all because God loves hilarious generosity! [8] Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything-every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.
Observation
In a culture of superannuation and consumerism that yells “lack,” generosity seems to be strangled by fear. “Will I have enough,” and “I already live in lack because I don’t have this and that, things I must have because ‘they’ have them.” These seem to be the fear questions of our day. And so fear compels us to stingy sowing. We know the saying, and it rings true, “you reap as you sow.” If we sow in fear and not from love, then we will never reap the fullness of the harvest that is ours. It’s not a reward God gives to generosity, it’s just the principle of sowing and reaping. “Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving-all because God loves hilarious generosity!” When fear’s deception is replaced with freedom and joy, then extravagance of giving, “hilarious generosity,”flows, and God loves it, because we are free and full of joy.
Generosity is the character of God. This is what He does. But God is not in control, He can’t give me all He desires, “enough of everything-every moment and in every way,” because I have not said “yes, I desire that,” I have not sown to reap His desire. Fear closes my hands as I hold tightly to the things I have rather than sow hilariously, and fear robs my life of realising the release of all God desires for me. “God is more than ready to overwhelm me,” with His generosity, but He can’t because my hands are closed holding tightly to my little, instead of sowing for His harvest to be released.
Imagine your life when you “overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.” You don’t sow for this outcome, you sow from His love, because you will never sow generously for reward, love is the only real motivator for sowing yourself extravagantly. When you sow for reward the soil you are sowing in is the economy of exchange, I sow so I will get, but when you sow in love your sowing in the soil of the Kingdom. Then in your “yes,” God can be free to release the fullness of His desired generosity. Imagine a world where this principle of Hilarious generosity reshaped our culture?!?
Application
God desires to be released in the fullness of His extravagance over my life, but He does not get His way. I desire to live postured in generosity where His grace freely flows in everything-every moment of my life. Generosity is the seed I plant for His harvest to be realised. He never forces His goodness, He invites me to receive all His extravagance.
Response
Thank you that you desire deeply to bless me immensely, I am so deeply loved. Thank you that you don’t trade and you don’t force, your posture is invitation. You are more than ready! You do not withhold anything from me, but you are controlled by love, and love never forces me to accept, it invites me to come intimately and be shaped. Love shapes me in generosity and generosity positions me in loves’ extravagance.
Meditation
Meditate – God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace.
Consider:
How loud is fear in shaping my generosity?
How often do you linger in loves’ presence that you may be shaped for hilarious generosity?
JOURNEY DEEPER
