Hitting the discomfort zone

I want to start with a text from First Kings, chapter 17, verses from 8 to 16. And you know why, because I feel that this text, and this episode in the life of the prophet Elijah, represents the emblem itself, the theme itself spiritually speaking, the anointing, the energy, the purpose of God in which this time that we are living is unfolding. It is under this sign, under this spiritual sign that we are undertaking what we are undertaking, and I think you will see that quickly. And that is why I have chosen it, because I want… remember that what we are experiencing is simply an exercise for something much broader that God wants to do in your life.

The temple is ultimately even secondary and tertiary compared to the greater issue that God wants to unravel within you. And that is why I want this text to serve as the banner, to serve as the theme of giving to God extraordinarily in times of scarcity to be extraordinarily blessed. Give to God extraordinarily in times of scarcity to be extraordinarily blessed. 17, 8 says, “then came to Him, to Elijah, the word of Jehovah, saying: Arise, go to Sarepta of Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded there a widow woman to support you. So he got up and went to Sarepta. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow woman was there gathering firewood, and he called her and said to her: Please bring me a little water in a glass that I may drink. And when she went to bring it to her…” and you see, she could do that part well, she had enough water, apparently.

But the prophet stops her and puts the drama on a much deeper and tense level, and he called her and told her, "come here for a little while, please bring me some water in a glass" and she went to bring it to him. , he called her back and said, "You know what? I beg you to bring me a morsel of bread in your hand as well." And she responded - this is where she began to slip and respond in a negative way, "Tell Jehovah, your God, that I have no baked bread, only a handful of flour I have in the jar and a little oil in a jar and now I was collecting two logs to go in and prepare it for myself and my son.” Look at that image of two logs, if you were a student of literature you would understand that those two logs meant there was not even firewood to make food.

I imagine that in a time of drought all the trees had been cut down, they had turned them into charcoal, everything she could, and even to cook a little thing you had to be looking everywhere to find something, she had two logs, those two logs are symbols of total scarcity and lack, drought that was on earth. Now he collected two logs 'to go in and prepare it for me and my son, so that we can eat it and let ourselves die'. There you have a very clear image of the devastation that existed on earth, the total drought and lack that existed, a woman preparing her last meal to lie down to die. But Elijah told him, "Do not be afraid, go, do as you have said, but do me first." You see, there is the key.

And by the way, I am aware, I forgot to say it at the beginning, we are using the same text that Omar preached last Sunday, but this is different, the word of God is multifaceted, you know, it has different levels, different… I have asked him I asked Omar to preach it and he preached it in his style, his approach and I wanted to preach it in this approach and it takes a long time to explain, but I assure you, don't think that the pastor had a senior moment, he forgot that it was preached on Last Sunday. No. This is the same text, but we are doing it differently.

"Do not be afraid, go, do as you have said, but do me first." That is very important, one of the primordial laws of good stewardship, of the proper use of money, of time, of everything, is that the Lord must always be given first. And then, everything that you want after that, that will come in addition. That is the essential law of all good stewardship of life. “Make me first of it a small cake baked under the ashes and bring it to me. And then you will do for yourself and for your son.” And then you will do for yourself and for your son. To me first, and then to you. My brothers, my sisters, there is God's crazy reasoning, God's transcendental, counterintuitive reasoning. Do to me first and then you will do for yourself and your son. Because? For Jehovah, the God of Israel, has said so. The flour in the jar will not become scarce, nor will the oil in the jar diminish until the day that Jehovah makes it rain on the face of the Earth. How many can receive that for their life, in this day? The flour will not be scarce, the oil will not diminish until the day Jehovah makes it rain again. Prosperity returns, normal times return, it will not be lacking.

So, she went and did as Elias told her, and do you know what happened? That he, and she, and their house ate for many days. Notice the contrast between him, I'm making a little bit of food and the last thing I have left for us to die, she ate, her son, her house, her whole house. What does your house mean? I imagine that the servants were there, the dogs that were in the patio of the house also ate, who knows if the neighbors could also bring them food, she and her whole house. Her grandchildren... she and her house ate for many days. And the flour in the jar did not become scarce, nor did the oil in the jar dwindle. According to the word that Jehovah had spoken through Elijah. Bless the Lord his Holy Word.

Brothers, this text is an illustrative text, it is a text that teaches us one of the deepest principles; Meches, pass me that text that is there from the stewardship. It puts everything in a context of crisis, urgency, but also extreme clarity. Do you remember, I spoke to you a few days ago about Josaphat's case? And I told them that the case of Jehoshaphat, where God told him, "stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah", that things are not always so clear, that sometimes you have to hit hard and you have to fight, but that God had chosen that text because it illustrated the very essence of what the move of faith is. A crisis, a prophetic word that comes out of the midst of the people, a people that believes that word and launches into doing something that seems crazy, like simply going to meet a much more numerous enemy, and the only thing they are going to fight is with praise. and worship. Craziness? But when that people believes what God has told them, God puts the weapons of the enemy against each other and at the end of that crisis there are great... -eye-, great provision, great fullness and the people return convinced as when it began In crisis.

And I told them that this is the essential journey of faith in the life of a man and a woman of God. And these texts are like that, they are illustrative texts, this text is the same in a sense, it removes all the complexity, it removes all of it, and what it leaves is an extremely clear situation. Where the processes of faith can be seen in a very, very, paradigmatic way. Very precise, very clear. And what this text manifests is that, what stewardship is, what it is to give to the Lord in a biblical way and puts everything like that, a context of extreme crisis, extreme urgency, extreme clarity.

God has given the order for Elijah to be sustained, but that order is going to be carried out through a complicated and zigzagging process. What have we seen here? Elijah is fleeing from a king who wants to kill him, God has been supporting him, providing him with food through the ravens, a stream that provides him with water, but there comes a time when the water dries up, the ravens no longer come and God He tells him, do you know what, Elias? Now there is a new stage. I am going to send you to another place so that you can be provided for. When you look at the life of Elijah, you see it continually go from victory to persecution and trial, to victory, to more persecution and trial, first the great climactic moment of the prophets of Baal when Elijah in front of the entire nation destroys the prophets of Baal. He has to flee because they want to kill him, try. Depression, gets depressed. Provision, God appears to him through an angel, gives him food, lays him down to sleep, strengthens him, sends him to walk. It is continually that trial process, suffering, when he is in the widow's house after the great victory, the widow's son dies, crisis. The widow says, you have brought me bad luck here, but Elijah resurrects the widow's son, victory. It is a life, and so is the life of faith.

God allows things in life, and that doesn't mean his hand has been removed from you. Simply, that he is providing you with another experience for your spiritual growth, because the only thing that matters to God is to produce experienced men and women in the processes of faith, people filled with the spirit, people who know spiritual principles, God does not want children. spiritual, and whenever there is a man or woman of faith living the Christian life as God wants them to live it, there will be zigzags, there will be complexity, but God will always provide. Moments are going to come and you are going to have to ask yourself and now where the next supply is going to come from, God already has it in his mind, God already knows exactly where it is going to come from.

You may not know it but at the precise moment God is going to tell you where it is coming from. With how many of us has God struggled like this in life, that sometimes we are there at the right moment and we don't know and God brings out the answers. Incredibly, somehow. And that happens here God provides his servant Elijah, and always tells us when we are entering a new stage of faith, of growth, of dealing with God. God tells you, do not fear because fear often comes from there. The Lord tells the people in Luke 12:32, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased God to give you the kingdom, it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom." That is the basis of all walking in the path of God. There are zigzags, there are complexities like this time that we are living, but God says do not be afraid. My brothers, that "do not fear" is the foundation of our generosity towards God. He is our provider, the person who gives to the Lord has to believe that God is his provider and that no matter what the moment he is living, God is going to provide him. Because if you give to the Lord believing that it depends only on you and that if you do not do what you have to do, you will lack it, and that it is your intelligence that gives you what you need... you know what? You will never give to the Lord. The people of God, the man, the woman of faith give to God because they believe that God is the one who provides them and that if they give to God, God will somehow manifest his fidelity in their life immediately.

We give generously to God from a position of trust that God will provide for us in all situations and so we can give to God with joy. “Jehovah is my shepherd, I will not want for anything”, says the psalmist. “Even if my father and mother left me with everything, Jehovah will take me back. I was young and I have grown old and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor descendants that beg for bread.” That is the continuous Word, it is that divine provision and the woman, the man who knows God, when he has to give to God, he gives because he has understood that. If you don't believe that God provides in all circumstances and that God is generous to his people, you will never enter into a measure of faith. In a move of faith.

God provided for Elijah, at all times we have seen, Elijah never lacked for anything. Why does biblical history record that episode... that life of Elijah? Just so we would know that there was a man named Elijah who walked the earth and that God did great things with him? Or is it because he wanted you and me to understand that what he did with Elias he can also do with you.

Why did he choose not only Elijah to provide for him, as he provided for him in the desert, but also a widow and a son - neither of whom have a name. Because He, God wants you to understand that the miracles of God's provision are not only for the anointed, the apostles, the prophets, the pastors, the great leaders, no, that is for every person who believes. And God wants to show his people from Genesis to Revelation, 'I am your provider.' When you have truly died to your will and to your intellect, that truth can dawn into your life.

Look at the ministry of Jesus, we have two examples there, one when he sent the 70 to preach the Gospel, he told them, “don't take a bag, or a saddlebag, or a staff, or anything. Leave the ATM card, the MasterCard, the Visa, the American Express, leave everything, the checkbook, leave it and just go with what you have on. Because? Because He wanted to show them that when they undertook something in His name, He was always going to provide for them, He wanted to exercise their faith. God always wants to exercise his people in faith. And sometimes he artificially removes all the scaffolding around us, all the security, so that when we stay in the air we only understand that yes, that He can provide. God sometimes builds artificial scenes around us because He wants to show us that He is the only thing that matters in the long run. Why did God choose the Sabbath? Why did God choose not to work on the seventh day? Because He wanted to leave humanity a paradigm. That if you stop working for one day a week, 14%, very close to the tithe, if you stop working once a week, your mind and your whole being will tell you, I'm going to miss . But if you honor the Lord with this exercise, you will see that you are not lacking and God blesses you.

Why did God choose that every 50 years, I think it was like that, every 50 years a year was left free, or it was every 7 years the earth was left a year, right? And the 50th year of jubilee, but every 7 years the land was left untreated for a year, without working. And God told him I am going to provide you for that year and for the following year in what you plant, because there was always a wait, God was going to provide for two years if they left the land alone. Because? Because he wanted a people of faith and he integrated into their communal life that principle of depending on him and not on themselves. Because we are so trained by the mind that if I do not do I will not receive, and if I give I will lack. And God wants us, the people of God, to understand that this is not the case, that we move in the power of God, the provision of God, and that if I honor God and put my life at risk for God, He it is powerful to do everything that seems it would not be done if I did not do it.

And then for us to continually refresh that principle and at 50 years, in the 50th year he turned everything back and said all lands be returned to those who lost them, all money be redistributed, all slaves be freed, all serfs be released, all debts forgiven and we're going to start fresh again. Wow, if Israel had the courage to live like this, they wouldn't have all the problems they have today. But it is that we lack faith, but that is what God, Jesus sends these men and women to learn faith, and when the time comes to provide for 5,000 people at the end of the day, and they say to him, "Jesus send those people now to look for food.” "No, you guys, feed them." “Us, from where? We don't have money, actually there are no supermarkets around here, there's nothing, at this time of day, how are we going to feed him?" And he tells them, “no, look among yourselves.” Because? Because God always wants, brothers, his processes to carry them out with his people. And He tells them, "Look in there." And they come back 5 loaves, 2 fish, and He then takes that deposit that they give. The 5 loaves and the fish were totally immaterial, secondary. He could do it with 5 stones and 2 sticks, but he wanted his disciples to take action, to take something out of the crowd because God always looks for a deposit from us. His miracles he always does in partnership with his children, brothers, understand this, always.

Why doesn't God rain down 3 million dollars from heaven right now for this church to build its building? Do you think he can't do it? He can do that and much more. God could wake up a philanthropist from somewhere who said, 'you know what Roberto…?' And you know what? If he wants to do it, it wouldn't be bad either, I receive it. 'I want to save you from this trouble, you know what? There you have the money, don't worry.'

You know what? God is interested in this church to show him what it is to live by faith. God is interested in raising up giants, men and women, filled with the Holy Spirit, people of faith. And he tells us, what do they have? What's between you…? Give me a deposit. Give me your proof that you believe me, and I'm going to do something loud, loud. I do believe, we are living in that incredibly prophetic time, in which God, as in this case of the woman from Sarepta, is telling us I want to do something in your lives, but first give me, even though it seems that you are giving me outrageously, madly, irresponsibly, give me first and you will not lack for anything. That is the motto of the man and woman of God, "I will lack nothing." And know? that the resistance of many to give generously to the Lord comes precisely from their lack of confidence that he will provide.

We sometimes say in our minds, if I give to the Lord, I will lack. But people of faith say, "Jehovah is my shepherd and I shall not want." That is the basis of everything the Lord wants for our lives. Luke, Chapter 12, says, “You, therefore, do not worry about what you will eat, nor what you will drink, nor be anxious; Consider the ravens that neither sow nor reap, have no pantry or barn, and God feeds them. Are you not worth more than birds? And who of you will be able to strive to add one cubit to his stature, do not be anxiously anxious, the people of the world seek all these things, but your Father knows that you have need of these things.” Elijah had confirmed this over and over again. However, even so there were moments of doubt in him, like that moment when he ran away from Jezebel, went into the desert and said, do you know what, sir, I'm already tired of this ministry. It is too much suffering, too much anxiety, too much loss. I know that my time has come, kill me, get me out of this world because I no longer have anything to do. Elijah was a man in agony, that is why the Apostle James, centuries later, says, "Elías was a man subject to passions similar to ours, however, he prayed and God listened and stopped the sky and it did not rain." Talk about the effectiveness of prayer, because Elijah was obviously a very psychological man, he was a man with unstable emotions, perhaps. And, he hesitated at times. But one would think, a person that like Elias doubting, impossible, if I did a fraction of what Elias did I would always be safe.

Look, we are always going to have to fight with doubt, the life of generosity towards God will always involve doubt. The fight against the natural mind that is part of the process of faith, if there is no doubt, fight in you, wavering, zigzagging, it is not a process of faith. Sometimes we will believe, and sometimes we will doubt. And we will have to overcome doubt and act strictly by objective principles and not by emotions. Giving generously to the Lord is a matter of discipline. Ultimately, one learns like a soldier, like a marathon runner when he says I'm going to finish, and he reaches 25 miles and has nothing left except encouragement, will and discipline. And that's what gets you there. And many times we go to give to the Lord as He wants, we are going to have to go beyond emotions. I tell you, I told the brothers this morning, this is a time when I do everything I do, I practically do it out of discipline, out of faith, and out of belief in God's purposes and principles. If I were a wiser and more prudent man, I would have closed this process a long time ago because times are not good.

There are some people who wonder, for example, why Pastor Miranda waits two or three years for this to be better defined and then undertake this. Confess, some of you have perhaps thought so; I have thought about it. But, I continue because I believe that this is the time, and because I move by faith. In these times I say I am like a pilot who is 30 thousand feet high on a dark night, over the sea, around him there is no point of reference and the only thing I have in front of me are the plane's instruments, the little needles and instruments that tell me where to go. And I have to trust the instruments because I can't trust my own eyesight, not my emotions or anything, but just the instruments. And so is tithing, and so is giving to the Lord. If we wait to always feel like tithing, we never will. Tithing is a discipline for example, giving to the lord is a discipline. It's like paying taxes. I know that there is a lot of talk about giving to God with joy, but look at the end of the day, when I have to give to the Lord, I don't ask myself if I'm happy or not, I simply give to the Lord, because I have to give because That is what is right and that is what the Bible says and that is what blesses me.

And this is how you are going to pay the IRS, when the time comes to pay the taxes, I don't know anyone who says, glory to God, how good April has arrived, March has arrived, now I can pay the IRS what I owe . But you do it because you have to pay the IRS and you know that the Bible speaks in those terms of giving to the Lord in that way. Look up for example Psalm 76, verse 11, it says there, “promise and pay to the Lord, pay to the Lord your God, all who are around him bring offerings to the fearsome one.” Pay to Jehovah your God. You know, God is fearsome, God is sublime, God is powerful, great. You have to pay the Lord. Why the Bible speaks, this morning it became absolutely clear to me, even when I wrote these words, when I preached them I had never dared to clearly understand that when we tithe we are paying the Lord something that we owe to Him. Look what Hebrews says, centuries later the writer of Hebrews speaks in the same terms. Because people sometimes say, well these are things from the Old Testament, look at what the writer of Hebrews says, 7, 9. He says, speaking of when Abraham paid tithes, etc., "and so to speak in Abraham paid tithes." , also Levi…” -a descendant- “who receives tithes.” In other words, there is a purely legal transaction there, when Abraham gave the tithe to that priest, Melchizedek, he was paying God the tithe. When the people, the subordinates, the subjects gave tithes to the kings in the old economy, they were paying the king, they had to pay him. And the tithe obeys that principle that the sovereign is paid for the services he renders, and that is a sign of subsidy to him. And understand this, brothers, because many times I want to tell you, God is not going to throw lightning at you, as some people say, if you don't tithe. But I can tell you that you are involved in a transaction when you enter into the divine, spiritual economy, you enter into some deals, in a terribly strong legal system, and there are things that happen and don't happen in our lives. There are things that are closed in our life because there is a lean, there is a debt, there is a legal document that prevents something from happening.

There have been people who have wanted to sell a house and when they go to sell it, they find out they can't sell it because there is a document stuck in there in the title that prevents them from selling it because they have to pay someone something first. How many know that? That is called a lean, and I believe that there are many times in the world of the spirit that there are things tied up that do not come loose because there are other things that have to be resolved. And the tithe is interesting because over and over again it is a matter of, it is as if God is owed, and you have to pay him that. And when you are not paid you are in a sense there are things that are seized. Why does God say in Malachi, you have robbed me? And people ask him, surprised, what have we robbed you of, they say. You have robbed me because you have not given me a tithe. When is it that you steal from a person, when you owe them something and you don't pay them. If you look over and over again at the language of tithing it is accompanied by this idea that it is a legal transaction, it is an act. And I believe, brothers, that many are not receiving more because they are not legally present, the world of the spirit moves legally, it is something that clearly, the world of demons and the divine moves based on legal principles. Look at that language of paying and robbing God. It's very important.

Now what happens, Elijah arrives in Sarepta. God tells him, go there because there is a woman who is going to feed you there. Maybe Elías thought well, I won the lottery, this woman is going to have a lot of money, a big house, a room especially for me. All the food that I need and I am finally going to get even for this hunger that I have been living with these blessed crows that do not bring me enough food. And what happens, when he arrives at Sarepta square, there in the city of Sarepta, what he finds is a poor, ragged woman, ready to lie down to die. And he says, hey Lord you are playing a trick on me here, what you are doing is a cruel joke. But God speaks to Elijah, and says, "that is the woman I have chosen to give myself." Who knows if God has chosen an immigrant community, not prosperous or not rich to do something extraordinary and exceptional in this Who knows if God is choosing this poor community, unquote, to teach a lesson to the rich in Lexington and Newton and elsewhere. Who knows if God has chosen this community so that through it God will bring blessing and revival and food to many of your people, that's a question, I'll just leave it there.

Sometimes God has a wry sense of humor, God always chooses the small, the weak, the unpromising to shame the strong and to provide. And God has a drama in this, God never… God is not as interested in the result as in the process. That is why God's processes are always multilevel, multifaceted. God always stuffs everything possible into the processes to get the most out of them and that is why he chooses this widow, this young man, that is why he chooses Elijah, because He wants to strengthen the widow, bless her, for who knows what happened in him. heart of that woman that God chose her to be the protagonist of this drama. And he also wanted to bless Elijah and provide for him. And you know what? He also wants to glorify himself. Because ultimately all these things point to is the glory of God. All this that we are living is only, God is there sitting on his throne breathing in this holocaust that we are preparing for him there. Ultimately, all this, if it happens as I think he wants, will result in absolute glory for Him. Because there are many things that we live and we live at a micro-level, but God is living it and there are angels out there. demons, there are principalities, there are archangels, watching, there is God, there is Jesus, a multitude of witnesses watching our trials, many times deprived. And neither this woman, nor even Elias, knew that he was living a drama that was going to serve as spiritual nourishment for generations, generations, generations, nations, cultures, centuries. And what he was living was purely secondary, God was simply setting up a drama to be written, to give food to generations, through history as it gives us today in the 21st century because God wants to glorify himself and all this brothers it points to the complex processes of God.

In every process of faith and giving the glory of God is involved. At the same time God will also be dealing with us, stretching our faith as well as testing us, and when his people believe him and take risks, God is glorified. We have already reached a point, God has blessed us, God has advanced us, God has given us many brothers. God has blessed this congregation. I say without pride, very few congregations can worship the Lord as we did a while ago, and this morning, at 9 in the morning. And I said, that same intensity cannot be repeated, but God made it possible, you have been blessed, God has given us many things. And we come here, and I think that sometimes we are not aware of all that God has given to this group of immigrants. And no, it hasn't been with so much pain, look, we haven't been stretched, but you know what, God is saying, now you have received a lot and I want your faith to grow and I want you to do something that will help you. hurt and what is it going to be… I want you to stretch, I want you to give me an offering that really costs you. And he wants to stretch our faith. God wants that after this process of faith, we do not go back to being like before, but that we reach another level.

When Lion of Judah went into this process to come here and was struggling to make this building and put it up and do all the things, Lion of Judah never went back to what it was before that. What's more, not even the name, we were the Central Baptist Church, today it is the León de Judá Congregation, it even changed our name, it changed our identity, it changed our ministry, it changed everything. It multiplied income, population, impact, level of ministry, reach, profile in the city, notoriety, it changed everything, brothers, we never went back to what we were before coming here. And now I know that God wants to do the same. God now wants to put this church at another level, but for the glory that He wants, a price must be paid, the cross always comes before the resurrection, before receiving one must give, before being resurrected one must die, before to grow you have to decrease as he said in that chorus, and Christian growth always comes through death and dispossession. A generous people glorify God. A shrunken and comfortable people is an embarrassment to God. In every process of giving to the Lord there are deep spiritual principles at play. And look how this unfolds, Elías asks the woman for a little bit of water, she has water, it seems that water can still be found in the city. And since what he asks for is little, she immediately sets out to look for it because it is very easy to give to the Lord within reason, what is possible, right? But that's not enough, then Elías asks him for something that is going to cost him.

Why does the divine drama occur in this way? In two stages, there. Again, because God is a very deliberate playwright. First stage, give me something to drink. No problem, of course, but you know what, feed me. Here comes the problem, she doesn't have to feed him. And that is where God wants to test it. She has to give food of which she has very little and here she resists, as we resist many times. What can we learn from this? The following: God asks us brothers to give to him in the zone of discomfort. I have often talked about that zone of discomfort. where it hurts Where does God test his servants? Where does God grade his servants? Where does God bring his servants into a new level of spiritual power? In the discomfort zone.

Where he tested Abraham, and said give me your son, your only son. At the age of a hundred or so, the only son that Abraham had, his only hope of preservation and extinction, and God tells him I am going to put you in the zone of discomfort. And he says, give me your son, your only son. And puts him on a trip. Three days. Sweating, stewing in his own humanity. Knowing that at some point a mountain awaits him, where he will have to put the knife into what he loves and adores the most to show that there is something more valuable to him than his son, who is the God who gave it to him. And that if he sacrifices that son and gives him to the Lord, there are millions of children in the bowels of God that he can give him. Because that was what the writer says, later in the scripture, that in Abraham's faith there was enough to believe that God was powerful even to resurrect Isaac. Because again, God is my provider, I know that He is, even if I give him something that I love, he will return it to me.

You know, let me tell you something about that. You know, some of you know, I just finished writing a book that I hope will be out soon, it's already written, we're already working on the cover and all that. Let me tell you something, a drama, something personal to me. When God called me to be a pastor in the year '84, as you know, I was doing my doctorate at the university, my desire was to write and be a university professor, to move in the intellectual world, that was my desire, my deep desire for which I had wanted since I was a child and what I wanted to be. And God told me to become the pastor of a tiny church in a corner of Cambridge, and I had to die to my dreams, I don't say that to make him admire me or respect me. Forget about it, God has given me a thousand times more. But, I had to sacrifice something that I loved, wanted. And I saw that those books that I wanted to write took wings and left me, but you know what? I said in my heart, if I am doing what God wants and if this is from God I wasn't sure it was, because it could simply be that I was at a time when this church needed a pastor, and I could to do it and since I have always resolved needs, I was receiving a need. I wasn't sure it was God actively, although God had already told me that He wanted me to pastor this church. But I by faith gave it to Him, and I said, "Lord, you want me to pastor this church, I'm going to do it," and I had to put my desire to write for 25 years and I always said, Lord, yes you want to do it at some point you are going to allow it. And maybe I'm going to die and I'll never be able to fulfill it, but I believe that you are powerful to make those things possible. And this past year, with pain in my soul, because that book was born out of pain, a thorn in my heart. God gave me the power, in the midst of so much work time and so much, to write that book. I know that it is the beginning of many others that God is going to allow me to do for the glory of Him, because when you give to the Lord what you love the most without a guarantee that you will receive it, but because you believe that God is your supplier. But it took me 25 years, brothers, for me to begin to see the faithfulness of God on that point. And there are other things as well that God has told me and I still don't see them, but I keep walking. If I die without seeing them, He will know how he responds to me when I get there to heaven, but I do believe that I am going to see them.

Sometimes I doubt and agonize, because when you give to the Lord, you serve the Lord, simply wait, wait for Jehovah's Salvation, because it will come in due time. And it is that area where God tests us, that area where God graduates us, we must first resolve controversies with the devil, with the demons, with irony, the cynicism of Satan and the controversy that he has with the human race and with God, and there are things that first have to be resolved with him because for some reason he has some right here for a while, and there are things that can only be resolved first by dying, bleeding, and being crucified. Blood pays prices you don't understand, nor do I. And not only Jesus had to be sacrificed. And there are things that have to be done, first you have to pay a price, you have to bleed, you have to die, you have to diminish so that they can be fulfilled against the devil who is the most terrible legalist there is. Something has to be paid for, mysteries of the things of God, you have to hit the zone of discomfort where it hurts.

The widow gave everything she had, and Jesus said, she has given more than anyone who gave millions of dollars, that's why so many widows in the Bible because widows were a symbol of everything that is given when there is nothing, only death and lack. God praises those women, praises those figures who give from nothing, from the emptiness, from the poor, from the minimum, from the negative. The conclusion is that and when we give to the Lord in that area of the uncomfortable, of the sacrificial, it is there where we are truly blessed, brothers. That type of offering greatly glorifies God, releases God's great blessing. The widow raises a rational and logical objection to Elijah's request. If you had to give your son's food to a man who comes to the city square, without knowing who he is, what would you say I am a servant of God, give me food, look brother, you would send him to fry potatoes over there, this is a charlatan. This is a scoundrel. And what mother can be accused of not being wise and prudent when she says, look, I can't give you my son's food, myself. And in any situation that would be reasonable, but look many times when God wants to do something extraordinary, he asks something extraordinary of you. Sometimes it puts you to the test, there are times when you have to give to God irresponsibly, scandalously.

You know when the Word says, God loves a cheerful giver, the word cheerful in the original Greek is a word rather it means like crazy, hilarious, this is the word, hilarious – it is the word of the person who gives out loud, the person who gives into a madness. God is not given even with a smile, he is given with laughter. Or that the day would come when we would give to the Lord laughing out loud, laughing all the way to the bank, actually. This woman raises a rational objection. Who can blame someone who says, look at this time I can't give, I prefer to wait for a time when things are better for me to be generous, to give. And that I have someone a little more trustworthy than this mere man, Pastor Miranda, asking me, if a little angel comes over there and tells me, then maybe I'll give. But he is a man, common and current, who is saying, give me first, to the Lord, and do not oppose logic. When we frequently give, like this, sometimes we oppose, right? Those reasons, reasonable, worth the redundancy.

Why does the widow respond, “look, I can't right now. I'm going to die, I have nothing left." Everything she says to Elias is an image of negativity, the widow responds to Elias with what I call a lack mentality. You remember when we preached the sermon a while back, on Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb and the ten spies. There was a division. I was saying that there are two mentalities in the people of God. One is a sufficiency and possibility mentality and the other is a lack and impossibility mentality. And that the people of God are always divided between these two dimensions, Joshua and Caleb represented the people who believe, who look at the positive, who look at the God who is there, who look at the one who has called them, look at the one who has promised, don't look at the obstacles. Those who live according to lack, look at the obstacles, look at the enemy, look at the height of the mountain, look at the closedness of the road, look at the dryness of the desert, look at the impossible of the company and look at the greatness of the giant. They look at the small of themselves and these people never receive what God has for them. Those ten spies stayed in the desert, their skeletons stayed there and now they are part of the dust, of the dry land of the desert. Joshua and Caleb, only two out of twelve entered the promised land, because there was a different spirit in them, says the Bible.

How interesting, two out of twelve, you know how much it is, it is 1 out of 6, which means, 16.6 -17%, almost 20% And this morning, I shared something very interesting with the brothers, and it is the following. With all this from the banks and the negotiations, they have asked us for an immensity of figures and details, incredible. Quantity of things. And thanks to the Lord, we have kept very precise records that have allowed us to give the banks everything they have asked us for, but one of the things they asked us for were month-by-month, week-by-week, three-month figures, how much and how many people give a certain amount of money and we had to provide them with all of that. For the first time, we had to start examining these things in this way and look how interesting what we discovered, and by the way I tell you brothers, you know what, I never look at who gives church tithes. During 24 years, 25 years of ministry, I have never looked at a spreadsheet, and this time I had the spreadsheets in front of me and obviously, I didn't look at who tithes in this church. Because I have always said I do not want that to impact or influence the way I treat anyone, nor do I want that to contaminate my mind at all and I did not look, but we did take numbers and things, and what came out is interesting. the light. Because we have to do a lot of graphics.

Church stewardship experts always say that 20% of the congregations, 20% of the people in a congregation, generally give 80% of the money. And you know what happened when we look at the numbers, that 20% of this church gives 80% of the money. 20% gives and I was like wow, and how predictable we human beings are. Now I know this is tight what I'm saying, brethren, but relax. I want to bless you. It is that like 2 spies, 2 only had the vision to see what God wanted to do and to believe God's promise and 10 did not have that vision, and 2 were blessed, our grandson is called Caleb for some reason. And, these are the people who mark history, these are the people who mark the people of God. How many Joshuas are in this church right now, and how many there are that have the names of the ten spies, who knows, because we don't even know their names. Brothers died in the desert. But 2 out of 12, and 2 out of 10, dare to believe him. That is like a paradigmatic number that divides the people of God.

Throughout history, and that is still how mysterious are the processes of God, the processes of the spirit. Brothers, I want to tell you, if this church, for example if in this campaign everyone who can give, gave modestly, no one would have to sacrifice. Let me put it to you simply. If everyone who has to tithe tithed, brothers, we would be one of the most powerful and wealthy congregations in the entire region. And one of the things that worries me as a pastor, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you, is that our church continues to grow numerically but it does not necessarily continue to grow in the way that it should grow financially. Now, what does that mean, that there is increasing pressure on church services because we have to do so much more with relatively less. The spiritual mouths increase but not the supply. And that then makes many people feel, 'oh they didn't visit me, they didn't call me, they didn't make me...' there isn't, although a lot of money comes in, but that's how it comes out, there are many properties that God has given us, many ministries , many things and we make every penny work, here nothing is spent that is not absolutely necessary, I can tell you. But, what happens, if we continue like this, if more people do not grow spiritually and join the ranks of believing in God, and giving to God, the church will grow in a certain sense, but it will grow in quality of its maintenance, of its physical plant, its services, its pastorate, all these things, and that is why you have to grow. Many of you have to grow quickly, because what God wants to do is big. Many of you have to hatch, you are in a straitjacket of disbelief.

And I encourage you in the name of Jesus, I tell you that prophetically, I am speaking now in a prophetic word, break the shell, that shell is suffocating you, it is not protecting you, it is suffocating you, it is a straitjacket, it is preventing your wings from expanding so that you can fly as God wants you to fly. Believe the Lord, stand on the Word of God, the prophetic Word, die to your reason, die to your comfort and God will bless you. Do not live in the mentality of lack, do not look at the ugly, the sinister of the environment, look at the God who says, "I am the same in the storm, I am the same on sunny days, I am the same in the desert and I am the same in the fertile land, I do not change, for me there are no difficult, there are no impossible, everything is yes, everything is possible, everything is easy, everything is present. That is the God you serve.

Elías tells the woman, -I'm finishing now- "don't be afraid, don't be afraid." That 'do not be afraid', is a word as I said at the beginning, it is a word for us, that is the divine response, over and over again for the people of God. "Do not be afraid, remember that, do not be afraid little herd, your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom, everything is yours." God tells you do not fear, if you give to me by faith you will not lack later. On the contrary, you will have more than you had before you gave me. The question is, are we going to believe God? Are we going to believe God? That is the question always.

Elías tells him 'do not be afraid, do me first' I told them that this is a principle of the life of stewardship, God must be given first. Proverbs, 3, 9. Honor Jehovah with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your fruit, the firstfruits, the firstfruits... the first, the first, and what will be the result, your barns will be filled with abundance and your presses will overflow with must. When you gave him the scoop, if you have a concordance, one of those complete concordances, find out how many times the word scoop appears in the Bible, so that you understand that this is an absolute principle, you have to tell God, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things that people kill themselves trying to achieve will be added. Look up later, Deuteronomy 26, verse 2, “then you shall take some of the firstfruits, of all the produce that you bring out of the ground and that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put them in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses for you. cause his name to dwell there.” What does the Lord say, look, take what you have received, take the best, take the choice and take it to the place where you are nourished, where the presence of God is, where you are militant, where you are receiving, and deliver it to the priest who It's there, today it's me, tomorrow it could be someone else, it doesn't matter, give it to them because that person is going to give it to me. And the priest will take the basket from your hand after you have said, I declare today to Jehovah your God, that I have entered the land that Jehovah, our Father, swore to give us. When you give to the Lord, when you recognize that he has blessed you and that he has been faithful. Many of us have come to a land that is not ours, and God has blessed us here, many of us have bought houses here, we have found work, the other day, I saw a Central American brother with a tremendous little device that is placed here , birding, as we say. Here with one of those cell phones, right here, it looked really pretty, really big, I even think she had a little gem there, and I jokingly said to Meches, 'you know what? That in his country, I assure you, he would not have one of those today.’ I told him just like that as a game. You know what and it is so brother, many of us have been blessed on this earth. We were born, you know, with one hand in front and one behind, and God has blessed us, he has prospered us. And when we recognize everything that God has given us, that is why we have to give to the Lord, because we have not lacked along the way. And that is why God tells them, when you take your first fruits to the priest, say, "I declare today..." I declare is a legal, documentary word, "I declare today to Jehovah, your God, that I have entered the land that Jehovah swore to , our Father, who would give us.” In other words, every time you give to the Lord, every time you give your tithe, that you give the Lord an offering, say, 'Lord, I declare and acknowledge and confess that I have been blessed by you, and that's why I give to you.' Say it in your heart, don't say thinking, 'oh what a drag I have to give again.' No. Acknowledge why you're giving, that you've been blessed, and go ahead, look at that text, I I am not going to stop against my soul, because there is so much there, read it, 26, everything that person says when he gives to the Lord, there is a principle of seriousness, of integrity, God gave me, God called me I am giving as He has asked me. Notice the generosity of God, the gratitude that tithing presupposes, and giving generously to the Lord.

I'm going to jump, I'm just going to jump. There's a lot, a lot, but I want… I'm going to finish. The result of all this, the result of all these things, and there is a lot that in another time, I looked for the morning sermon, where I was able to finish it. What is the result of this process, which involves risk, death to self, death to reasoning, giving by faith, recognizing God's generosity, giving in the zone of discomfort, daring to believe the Lord. The result of this complex process reveals a universal spiritual principle regarding giving generously to the Lord. And it's the following, stand up, I want all of us to read what follows. What is the result of all this that we are saying. You can repeat it, and you are going to confess it with me because I believe that nothing I have said here is out of the Biblical, if I have preached something, if I have declared any principle that is not supported by Scripture, I beg you not to listen to me and to close your heart against what I have said. But if you cannot find a Biblical counterargument to everything I have said, then open your heart to what I am telling you, because it is from God, and this is permeating it, it is seconding it, it is filling it for the rest. of their life. If I have preached a sermon in the word of God it is this one, if I have preached it in the spirit of God it is this one, if I have preached it in the prophetic spirit it is this one.

The result of this complex process that we see here reveals a universal spiritual principle in relation to giving generously to the Lord and it is the following, say with me: "When we take risks to give to God, when we give in the zone of discomfort, when we give beyond our means, when we give to Him first, no matter how scandalous this act is to reason.” Confess it, “God will bless us.” Say it loud, “God will bless us in a generous way, beyond our expectations, and our faith will be strengthened.”

That is the word of the Lord for the Lion of Judah congregation in these times, our brothers. Lord we adore you, we bless you, we exalt you, we glorify you Lord. Father, I know that you want to mark us, Lord, with this Word. You want to mark us with this experience, you want to graduate us to a new level of power as a congregation, as individuals, as your servants in prophetic times, Lord. Now this Word enters the depths of our being, Lord, and may it be a beacon that directs our life, our relationship with you. Break Lord, everything that is not yours. And put only what obeys the patterns that you have established in your Word. Bless this town Lord. I give this Word to you so that it bears fruit for the glory of Your name exclusively. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen, and amen, and amen. Glory to the Lord. Glory to the Lord. Don't let the enemy take that Word away from you.