Thursday, June 25, 2015

Pledge or Faith Commitment?

I am writing from Tulsa, OK. 

Juli and I had come down for a conference this week. 

It has been full of revelation, anointed worship and great teaching. 

One area that the Lord spoke to me this week was in the difference between making a "Pledge" vs. a "Faith Commitment."

If you are a follower of Jesus, at some point the Lord will challenge you in the area of Giving and Generosity. The reason for this is that God is a Giver and He is abundantly Generous...and He expects us to become like Him!

When we make a "Pledge" to give, what we do is look at our budget, and decide "what can I afford to give without messing with the status quo of my finances?"

However, God does not call us to make these kind of pledges. The Lord always wants us to be operating out of a place or position of Faith.

So a "Faith Commitment" is where we ask the Lord, "What is it You want me to give?" The answer to that has nothing to do with your current financial status. 

I heard a minister this week give testimony to this. 

He asked us all, "Have you ever been in a situation where you wished you had a lot of money so you could help someone or give generously into an offering?"

When he was younger he was in that exact situation where he wanted to get behind another ministry's Kingdom endeavor, but quite frankly, he did not have the money.

It was in his heart to give $1000.

At that time he felt he could only believe for $100.

Honestly that was where his Faith was then.

So the Lord told him to believe for $100...TEN TIMES!

We all got a laugh at the story, but that is exactly what he did. 

He made the Faith Commitment for $1000. 

Following that meeting, every time God brought him $100 above his normal resources He sent it to that ministry. 

He ended up meeting his Faith Commitment in 4 months! 

This in the natural was a miracle!

You see, when we put ourselves in a position of Faith, God can then begin moving on our behalf.

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is (exists), and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

The Effect of No-Frills Worship

2 weeks ago we had a great worship service at LifeTree!

In case you weren't there, we had major sound issues right as we were starting the service. Everyone rolled with it. 

Svanna just so happened to have brought in her new acoustic guitar, Andy started leading, we pushed the grand piano over, Jeff played his bass through the amp, Jadyn jumped on the congas and somehow John's electric still worked...

...and we had CHURCH!

It was so beautiful hearing all the voices worship the Lord without all the frills of full sound and a full band. 

It reminds me of Paul and Silas in prison, as they began worshipping the Lord...now they didn't even have an acoustic guitar! 

However, I heard the acoustics in that prison were pretty sweet for a cappella singing! hahaha.

Seriously, talk about no-frills worship!


They had just been beaten with rods, their backs were bleeding, their feet were fastened into stocks, it was dark.

The result of that pure worship before the Lord was:
      atmosphere-changing, 
           bondage-breaking, 
                freedom-making, 
                     foundation-shaking Worship!

Acts 16:25-26 (NKJV)
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and EVERYONE'S chains were loosed.

Wow! Their Worship lead to EVERYONE around them being set free from their chains???

Think about that one!