Boqer Or (Good Morning Light)!

Shalom Fellow Vertical Warriors,

This morning I would like to identify the exact GPS location for your break out.  And once you have experienced this location of when and where your break out begins...then you will able to help others find this place of God’s commanded blessings.  (Hint, hint...it begins with radical generosity to a certain people group...but to whom?)

A good word to describe this secret break out place is “effervescence” which the dictionary lists as “to begin to boil, hiss, or foam as gas escapes”.  It is also the word used to show liveliness or exhilaration!  So the place of His commanded blessing for break out is where there is a boiling over of liveliness and exhilaration!  How do we know that?  Well let’s take a look at what the Apostle Paul says of certain believers in 2 Corinthians and how they reached a place of boiling over in exhilaration to have the opportunity to give to the needy Jewish believers in Jerusalem...despite their own horrible and paradoxical circumstances they found themselves in.

“Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints...” 2 Corinthians 8:1-4 NASB

The Apostle Paul brings in this above change of stream, in this his 2nd Epistle to the believers in Corinth, to bring out a very important point.  The first 7 chapters of this letter were to defend and explain his apostolic status and then in chapters 8 and 9 is the ongoing argument to raise financial offering for the believers in Jerusalem.  Paul uses many unique phrases here to show the paramount significance in the spiritual indebtedness the Gentile believers have towards the Jewish believers in Jerusalem.  He is not using his letterhead space to just do admin work here and finalize a large offering.  Instead, he strongly wants the believers in Corinth to contribute very generously by being provoked by the grace given to the Macedonian believers!

Look at some of the things that are brought out here by Paul about the “effervescence” of these believers.

1. God’s grace was so lavishly empowering them that they begged for an opportunity to give.
   
   
2. They considered themselves privileged and honored to be just be given the opportunity to give financially to the Jewish believers (see Romans 15:26-27).  It was not a chore! It was the highest privilege!
   
   
3. They yearned for this opportunity to give.... (How much more pleading can you get? This is amazing!)

Yet, look at how horrible their external situation was in the midst of this pleading and begging to be given the opportunity to give....

1. They were in great affliction and abject poverty.
   
   
2. Their faith, courage, and constancy were being tested by a great “ordeal”.
   
   
3. The paradox expressed here by Paul was that their great generosity was in the midst of destitution and rock-bottom poverty!
   
   
4. Yet, in spite of their profound destitution and abject poverty, the Macedonian believers showed themselves lavishly open-handed to the Jewish believers!  They were experiencing “exuberant joy” and “lavish generosity” that was affecting others!
   
   
5. Paul used this to remind the Corinth believers to complete their own languishing offerings (2 Corinthians 8:7,11).

So when Paul uses these believers character as starting point to provoke the believers in Corinth to give to the Jewish people, he speaks not of their spiritual gifts, prosperity, or wisdom...but of their boundlessness and effervescence of joyful giving!  It was this magnanimous spirit of the Macedonian believers and their urgent pleading to be involved in the financial collections for the Jewish believers, that would bring about the promises of
2 Cor. Chapter 9! (Read now this whole chapter and see these incredible promises linked with Ps. 112!)

There you have it dear warriors!  Your break out begins by not looking at your circumstances but by letting the effervescence of the joy bubble up to be given the privilege and honor to support the Jewish believers in Israel!  This is when you know you are in God’s perfect will and your break out into “all grace abounding to you” from 2 Cor. chapter 9 is on the way!

In His service for your faith,

Scott and Dalit

(Click Here Read Part 4)

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