Do you understand the goal of the Christian life? You ask me for provision and healing and I give you these things, but the goal of the Christian life is not to have stuff or even to be healthy. My long-term plan is to transform you into my likeness to make you a suitable companion for me. Therefore I tell you not to seek after the things that the gentiles seek, even though you need them and I provide them for you. I want you to seek first my Kingdom, to seek those things which are above. Receiving is easy, and transformation is not. You can’t do it by yourself, but if you seek me I will make it happen. 

Do you know that every computer search you perform is permanently stored, even if you delete it from your computer? Does this make you more careful in what you search for? Yet even before computer searches became available all of your actions were permanently recorded. I said that the things you whisper in the ear would be shouted from the housetops, and nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest. Have you heard it said that what you do when no one is watching is who you really are? Yet someone is always watching. Live in such a way that you will not feel awkward or embarrassed when it comes to light. 

Do you long to see me move in a mighty way, with visible evidence? I can do this, but it involves a process. What do you see around you that didn’t begin with an idea? This refers to your physical, material world of artifacts, yet each of them began as a concept in someone’s mind, and then they put in the effort necessary to bring it forth. The spiritual world is the same way. My movements and acts begin as concepts of revelation in the minds of my people. If they are willing to embrace them and walk in them then they will come to pass. If you want to see me move, step forward as an agent through which I can act. 

I said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you find this hard to swallow? Does it fly in the face of your culture of acquisition? Yet don’t you see this truth in effect around you, even outside of church walls and among those who do not make a Christian profession of faith? Even if the first half of your life is devoted to acquiring, what do you do with what you get? This applies to more than money. It is a deep-seated human desire to give back, to provide something for the human race generally that represents the value you have acquired whether it be wisdom, skill, art, benevolence, money, or something else. Those who do so know it is more blessed to give than to receive.