Can Believing in the Lord Fill Our Stomachs?

Whether believing in the Lord can fill our stomachs has become the theme of our discussion. After much deliberation, my conclusion is that believing in the Lord not only fills our stomachs but fills them very well. Some hold different views, believing that faith delays studies, work, and many other things. This issue is indeed perplexing. According to human logic, we go to church on Sundays, study the Bible, pray, read the Scriptures, and serve throughout the week. The time spent is considerable. So, do we live well or not?

Writers like to provide poetic evidence, but we have testimonies to prove our point. The fact is that believing in the Lord makes us live better. Deuteronomy 26 is essentially a summary of the preceding chapters.

The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made, and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised. (Deuteronomy 26:16-19)

Trusting in God Will Exalt Us Above All Nations

Today, let's carefully consider whether trusting in God will lead to a good life. If you carefully observe and practice what you learn, you will know that God will set you in praise, fame, and honor high above all the nations He has made. I am a person of faith, and I hope everyone among us has faith. No matter how you live among us, I feel it would be too difficult to live this life without faith.

A brother in business suffered significant losses, a terrible situation. When I called him, he kept asking when things would turn around. I said I wanted to ask him too, when will you turn around? Why do I say that? Because the things he filled himself with directly contradicted God's various concepts. He believed that doing business required cultivating relationships, being smooth and agreeable, and pleasing everyone. But the problem is, if a Christian pleases everyone, they incur God's wrath. So sometimes, I see some brothers and sisters often saying, God, when will my situation turn around? And then I retort, God also wants to ask you, when will you turn around your thoughts and intentions?

What kind of concept is this? Do we believe that God will exalt us above all the nations on earth? The concept of being exalted above all the nations is a good life. If you say that being exalted above all the nations seems to refer to something that can only be achieved after we die, that's not quite right. Because God is the God of the living. I get a bit anxious when I see how this brother lives, and when I get anxious, I tend to scold people. It's not like I get anything out of him living well; I already live very well. It doesn't affect me too much if he lives well, but I get anxious seeing it. It's a tragedy for someone who knows God not to know that God will exalt him above all the nations He has made, to become the holy people of Jehovah. I used every method, including criticism, instruction, and aggressive encouragement, but he just kept telling me about his affairs.

This inquiry angered me. Someone had cheated him in business, cheated him terribly. As a result, after the person said a few pitiful words, he lent him money again. I had told him before to seek my advice on financial decisions. How can you be blessed if you do this? In fact, he has a very strong logical system inside him. This logical system is that people need interpersonal relationships to live, so I can't offend people. If I offend people, how will I live? If someone asks me for money, I have to lend it, or I'll offend them. This kind of thinking is deadly.

Do you know what happened as a result? I told him that from now on, I am no longer your pastor, and you have no great relationship with me. I can't manage your mess, it's too difficult to manage. After I said that, he woke up. At 3:00 AM, he got up and said he finally understood that he was the holy people of Jehovah, and God would exalt him above all the nations on earth. Why should I care about these people? I don't care anymore.

If you think about it carefully, you will understand that if our Abba Father controls the universe, if He is the greatest God in the world, the God who controls the universe, the heavens and the heavens of heavens, the earth and everything on it belong to Him, and then He is our Abba, do you think we will live in poverty? We will never live in poverty. In fact, the business this brother is doing is a sunset industry, and it's quite hard work, but God can turn everything around.

As a result, the next morning, I sat in front of him and watched God do wonderful things. His orders came in one by one. Before, he saw nothing but busy work, losing money no matter how busy he was. The more he worked, the more money he lost because the intentions inside were wrong. He didn't know that God is the God who controls the universe, and he just knew how to take care of all these things. After taking care of everything, he lived a terrible life. I listened to the unlucky things he experienced, and they were like jokes. He said he was catching a plane, rushing to catch the plane. The person said there was enough time, but he said no, let's go now, and his friend said there was enough time. As a result, the plane took off.

Of course, he paid for both tickets. Losing ten thousand on a plane trip not only prevented him from making money but also cost him money. Listening to it was like a joke. As a result, he happily continued to be set free in my presence, set free from a devil's lie. If we are the holy people of Jehovah, He will surely exalt us above all the nations. Within me, there is such a stubborn faith that what the Bible says will surely come to pass.

Whether it is building a church or doing anything else, I have absolute faith in God. Everyone should know what kind of situation I came from. I started building the church from a situation where calling on heaven did not respond, calling on earth did not respond, with no people and no money. It was truly divine. As a result, today it has become a blessing to many people.

Previously, I met a brother who loved the Lord very much. I met him for the first time on Hainan Island. We sat there late at night, quite cold, chatting until 2 or 3 AM.

He was extremely happy and took out the cloth strips in his pocket to show me the world map. I explained the theological concepts to him one by one. He had never heard me talk about these things. All he had seen was people believing in the Lord miserably, living terribly. Later, he left me a message on WeChat yesterday, saying that he shared my theological concepts with quite a few brothers and sisters.

Today is the Era of Chinese Mingding Destiny

To set us in praise, fame, and honor high above all the nations He has made, this sounds good, and even if some people have not lived it out, we still believe it. After this brother shared it, they all agreed. Then he said that today is no longer the era of Calvinistic theology, but the era of our own Chinese Mingding Destiny. I felt a little embarrassed after hearing that, but I felt it sounded pretty good.

Why? Because we really did build a set of our own homegrown ideas from reading the Bible, the original meaning in the Bible. God's original intention was to exalt us above all the nations on earth, which is great! Some people say that this is called prosperity theology. I say that yours is called failure theology. Is prosperity theology good or failure theology good? Is a theology of curses good or a theology of blessings good? I'm telling you, choose for yourself. In any case, my choice is to choose according to the words of the Bible.

It is Important to Keep and Obey the Tithe

The words in Deuteronomy are excellent. Where is the path that surpasses all the nations under heaven? It lies in keeping and obeying, in keeping and obeying with all your heart and soul. Chapter 26 speaks of what to obey? It speaks of tithing. Not only a tenth, but every year you must take the first fruits of your land. When a sheep gives birth to its first lamb, that first lamb must be offered to God. Can you call that a tenth? The other lambs have not even been born yet, and the first one is already offered to God.

How many lambs will there be later? It is hard to say whether it will be ten percent or a tenth. If ten lambs are born later, it is a tenth. If five are born, the sheep will be old and no longer productive. Wouldn't that be a loss? Today I tell you, if you offer the first sheep, the ones that follow will be blessed.

If you offer the firstborn lamb, the ones that follow will be blessed; if you offer the first fruits of your land, the ones that follow will be blessed. Our concept is that we cannot follow God's concept. We think that doing business depends on our own hard work, fighting, competition, and struggle. We do not know that doing business should depend on God's blessing.

There was a very frustrated brother who was a senior executive in a giant company in China. He had worked his way up step by step, full of pressure, working until the early hours of the morning every day. As a result, he did not pray for two months. Not only did his boss not like it, but he also wanted to demote him, which made him very troubled. Then, when he was working in Singapore, he sought prayer and ministry from one of our church's co-workers. He knew everything, but he did not believe that God could make us live above all nations.

Originally, we could live with praise, fame, and honor, but instead, we received shame, a bad reputation, and demotion. That is to say, if we go the wrong way, we will be ashamed. The history of the Israelites has proven this: When the Israelites trusted in God, they were strong; when the Israelites did not trust in God and violated God's laws and decrees, they were oppressed by those around them. Throughout the ages, a truth has been constantly confirmed: those who trust in God will surely prosper. In the past, I have also experienced many ups and downs in the workplace. When I violated God, I thought I should do things according to human will, but the more I tried, the worse it got. Later, I really had no regrets, because these devastations and strikes can allow us to re-establish our faith to call on God.

Be sure to know that life without God is hard, but life with God is good! In days with God, you must do according to God's word. You will find that God's word is very good, but you must pay the price! Every year you must offer the first fruits of your land, then the ones that follow will all be blessed. The laws that our God has established are all laws of blessing and cursing. You can choose to be blessed or cursed. The choice is in your hands. You reap what you sow. A person who sows according to the Spirit (that is, God's word) will reap life, peace, joy, and eternal life. If a person sows according to God's commandments, laws, and decrees, he will reap blessings. God's love for you is unconditional, but blessings are conditional. If you do not live well, you can only blame yourself for not sowing the right seeds. If you sow seeds of blessing every day, that would be incredible.

So I tell you, giving is sowing seeds of blessing. Some people say, Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing—then you feel that giving to God is doing good to God, as if God is short of your few dollars, as if God is a beggar? Without your few dollars, it is as if God cannot survive?

That is not doing good to others, but doing it to yourself. That is sowing seeds of blessing. You know, in God's creation, the most beautiful thing is the seed. You reap what you sow. God asked the Israelites to give, but that is not really called giving, it is called sowing seeds of blessing.

So our brothers and sisters must wake up and sow seeds of blessing, doing good to ourselves; otherwise, you are only shortchanging yourselves, not shortchanging God. Many of our theological concepts need to be reversed, then we need to re-establish our faith in God. Why does God tell us to give? Not only must we take out a tenth every year, but we must also take out a portion during festivals as a thanksgiving offering, totaling about fifteen percent, plus the offering every three years (Deuteronomy 26:12), it will be eighteen percent.

Then, the return from giving eighteen percent is extremely generous. In the past, my giving was about this proportion. As a result, I am not only not poor, but also a wealthy person in the pastor's team. In the past few years, everything I bought went up in price. Every time I bought a property, it went up a lot. Later, many people watched me buy and then they bought, because they knew that following me to buy property would make money. This is true, because I am a giver. Everyone knows that money is easy to spend, but I am not stupid. I am a sower.

Be a Sower Who Gives

I am a sower. If you are a farmer and do not sow in the spring, what will you harvest in the fall? If you want earthly delicacies and treasures, you must sow seeds of blessing. Sowing is not doing good, it is what you ought to do. If today you do not have a correct understanding of giving, then do not give. We give to the temple of Jehovah, which today is the church, not a charity. If we listen to the word of Jehovah our God and do everything that God has commanded us to do.

Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. These words are very well said. Many Christians live like losers, just because they do not believe. Some pastors seem to give their whole lives, but they cannot even pay their children's tuition fees, so their children vow never to be like their father. Is this praising the beautiful name and honor of God?

Why are they not blessed? Because they did not act according to God's word. A priest of the living God should be very wealthy. If the priest has a poor mentality, that is troublesome. In future generations, we will surpass the previous church and become a more glorious church. The glory of God will descend upon us, and this latter glory will be greater than the former. We must restore all the teachings in the Bible, and we must restore the wonderful works of God in our midst.

On earth, we must learn the lesson of giving. We must remove the idea of poverty. A person's mind and thoughts are poor, which is true poverty. We must give wholeheartedly and with all our being. Not only in time and money, but also in all things. A brother shared with a Singaporean pastor the amount of time our church's brothers and sisters spend serving. They were shocked and could not accept that we spent so much time praying, feeling that people could not handle it.

Now I think about it, when I first believed in the Lord, I was particularly busy with work, thinking that being busy would turn things around, but in the end I was demoted, which made me feel ashamed. Now, looking back on the past, how good it would have been if I had understood to rely on God. At that time, I did not know that I was violating God. I thought I was the Job of the world, and I did not pray much. I had too little of the image of God.

I had time to be humiliated, time to lose money, but no time to make money. I had time to be cursed, but no time to be blessed, so Deuteronomy 26 speaks very well, so we must be Jehovah's holy people, and God will make us above all the nations under heaven, above and not below, the head and not the tail.