The Lord is bringing new light on the principles of giving and receiving which are found in the Word of God. The following two passages of Scripture provide a good basis for applying these deep truths.
“Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return.” Luke 6:38. Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. II Corinthians 9:6–8.
Usually when a preacher talks about giving, he is talking only about the financial needs of the church. Believers who are led by the Spirit have another emphasis. With them, giving is an act of obedience. They are concerned with what God has revealed for them to do, and they set about to do it. However, there are other principles of giving that must be understood.
Intercession is related to certain principles of giving. Suppose you do not know how to pray regarding someone who you feel is an enemy, so you decide to pray against him. Do not pray against your enemy; give him love. You cannot receive an oppression from an enemy as a result of giving to him. You can only receive an oppression through what your enemy gives to you. If you accept what the enemy is bringing to you, you can be oppressed; but if you give with love to an enemy, there will be no oppression.
This is not to say that you are to give what is holy to dogs; you are not to cast your pearls before swine, lest they turn again and rend you (Matthew 7:6). This Scripture refers to another principle.
The principle of giving shows how blessing or oppression is channeled by the giver and is accepted by the receiver. If you send a blessing to another, and he receives it, it stays with him. If he rejects your blessing, it returns back on your own head (Luke 10:5, 6). Then you are twice blessed: blessed by God for your obedience in blessing, and blessed with your own blessing that has been rejected. Thus, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35b. As a giver, you are not vulnerable. If you give to another, you are not open to his oppression nor will you be wounded by it, because the tide is flowing in the opposite direction. To illustrate this principle, we can use the example of pure water flowing down through the sink; none of the putrefaction of the sewer can come back up because of a little trap beneath the sink. Likewise, God makes a trap for you, so that when you give something good, you do not receive something evil in return.
You are not vulnerable to the evil in the one to whom you give. You do not need to be afraid of evil in anyone. Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you. Be like your heavenly Father, who gives to the just and the unjust alike. Be perfect, as He is perfect (Matthew 5:44–48). Love and give, with no fear of consequences. Often people think that they are being oppressed because they have tried to do good to someone. Do not fall for that lie of Satan. A giver is not vulnerable.
The receiver of a gift is open to receive more than just the gift. This principle is utilized in witchcraft. If someone who is practicing witchcraft gives you a gift, you become vulnerable to him. However, if you reject the gift, you will have no openness to him. God never said that you have to take what your enemy gives you. He tells you to give love to your enemy, and … in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Romans 12:20. By giving, you create a chain of blessing, which makes your enemy vulnerable to the dealings of the Lord. You are ministering in perfect love and you are channeling perfect love to him, and if he does not receive the love as from God, he will answer to God for it. Moreover, you will not become vulnerable by his rejection.
It is more blessed to give than to receive. If you give in the name of the Lord, you draw a blessing from the Lord that is greater than the blessing which you convey. If you curse another, and the curse is causeless or out of the will of God, then you add a double curse to yourself. Judge not, that you be not judged; for with the same judgment that you judge, you shall be judged again (Matthew 7:1, 2). There is no defense against the boomerang principle. You are judged with the same judgment that you give to others. You give and it is given to you.
Although there is the negative aspect of receiving, there is a positive side also. If you receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, in God’s sight you have the identity and the reward of a prophet; you will receive a prophet’s reward (Matthew 10:41). If you receive any man in the ministry which God has given him to give you, then you become identified with that ministry and you share the same reward with him. Be careful what you receive. Be careful what you give. If someone who is in authority and who is moving in divine order gives you an impartation, you can multiply that impartation by just being submissive to him. You must understand that being submissive and being vulnerable are very similar. Therefore, you must be careful not to confuse the two. Do not become open and vulnerable to something which God does not want you to be submissive to.
Teaching is being circulated which tries to make women submissive to devil-possessed husbands. Forget that. The Word says, “Wives, be submissive to your own husbands, in the Lord”(Colossians 3:18). That is good; do not back off from that. Rebellion cannot be tolerated in any link of divine order. But many women have been told to be submissive to something that is right out of the pit of hell. This has destroyed many women, regardless of what anyone says; for when you are submissive to something, you are vulnerable to it. However, to be submissive to a person in divine order is to receive by impartation everything that the ministry is sending to you.
If you are submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings, you very much become a king. If you come before the Lord and submit to Him in meekness, you become an inheritor. In order to receive, you must be submissive, and that makes you vulnerable. If the source is evil, you become vulnerable to it. If the source is good, you are also vulnerable. If you are submissive to the King, you become a king. If you are meek before the Lord, you inherit. If you are poor in spirit, you possess the Kingdom (Matthew 5:3, 5). This leads to one statement which you should weigh with all your heart: the submissive recipient at the feet of the Lord is the only invincible individual who exists anywhere. Immunity and invincibility are based upon being submissive and receiving what the Lord gives. That is the positive side of receiving.
Suppose the Lord beams something to a believer. If he is submissive to it, and he opens his heart to receive it, he becomes one with the Lord. Then he is seated with Him and is identified with Him. Suppose God sends something to a believer and he rejects it. Looking at the negative aspect, what will happen to him? If he rejects what the Lord provides and gives, he will lose what he seems to have. A man cannot reject the positive without unconsciously accepting the negative. If he rejects life, he is automatically accepting death. If he refuses to be submissive on any level of divine order, he will eventually accept divine rejection of himself. If a man does not have faith in God’s promises and provisions when He beams them to him, he does more than just miss the blessings that God has promised. That man accepts a state of condemnation and judgment as an unbeliever, because he does not believe the promises of God and what God has offered him.
Stevens, John Robert: This Week, Volume VII (1976). North Hollywood, CA. : Living Word Publications, 1986, S. 414