Imagine if you could prompt the president of the USA to speak and arrange things for you. It would be awesome. It would make your life so much easier, right? Imagine if you could reach him directly. You would be considered powerful simply because of your association with him. Now imagine if you could make the King of the US president speak, the King of all Kings. Imagine how your life would be!
The story of the poor widow in Mark 12:41-44 inspires me to re-evaluate my heart and motives.
I am taken aback by the story of the poor widow who gave a small amount of money (in the eyes of this world) but which was counted as the most (in the eyes of God). Her giving was noteworthy and prompted Jesus to open His mouth, point her out and speak about her. It also struck me because It tells me that there are people God does not talk about, even if they give alot of money. There are people who do not move or impress Him.
Therefore, this level of giving is something worth learning from and persuing, as it moves God to the point of Him opening His mouth and speaking. He was quite whilst the rich were giving from their abundance but He only spoke when the poor widow gave out from her poverty, just two mites (the lowest denomination of coins of that time).
Why?
How does one get to this level of giving which moves God enough to prompt Him to speak? We need to consider the place we are giving from. Significant sacrifices are given at a certain place, such as an altar.
What place are you giving from?
The place we must give from is the place where we know and are aware that God sees our true motives for giving. We come to Him in truth. We must not be fooled into thinking that we can give impactfully by giving with reservations or withholding that which is due to Him. We must take our personal journey to Mount Moriah. However, I will not deal with the journey here but rather the location of the spiritual place itself.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Genesis 22:2 KJV
According to Strong’s Concordance, the word Moriah used here means seen by Jah. It is derived from two root words:
- râ’âh (which means to see)
- yâhh (which means the Lord, most vehement)
Thus, giving our best offerings, sets the eyes of the Lord on us and we encounter the most intense and passionate side of HIm. Infact, giving is so important to Him that we encounter the “most vehement” side of Him!
God’s yardstick is very short. No varying degrees or increments in between. He wants us to have an all or nothing approach in our giving, just as how He prefers that we are either hot or cold.
This is where we give our best. Where we unreservedly give what is due to God (our best) because we know that God sees us.
So, where is this place where God sees? Where is this place called Moriah? Where is it located?
It is in the same location as where the poor widow found herself on the day Jesus noticed her amoungst the rich. It is the same place where Abraham was about to loose His one and only Son.
Mount Moriah is located at the following address:
911 Decision lane
Brokenness area
Inner Room City
Heart Region
Truth Country
Spirit Realm
Thus, it is located in the Spirit in the vastness of truth, within your heart inside your inner room in the area where you make decisions out of brokenness.
You will find brokenness when you are desperate enough to want to find it. It takes time on a journey to find it. Just as you ask around in a foreign city for a specific area, the Holy Spirit will navigate you to that place. It takes questions and the help of the Holy Spirit to navigate to this place. It is located right next to your habitual sins or any wickedness or deceit that you have in your heart. Once you have found these, you will be able to link it to decisions which you have made. They are usually a few all lined up like properties lined up in a street (“Decision Lane”).
Start with house number 911. This one is the most desperate decision you have made in your brokenness and usually most damaging. Where you built a life, business or career as a result of desperation. Or it may be an idol such as a child, house or car. This is one of those properties that has taken property over your heart. You need to give it up for God to demolish and rebuild.
King David knew this, that is why he called upon God to search his heart.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24 KJV
Once you have found wickedness within yourselves – rejoice! You are very close to Moriah. Rejoice, because now you have the opportunity to reverse the decisions you have made in the spirit. Make the right decision now. Repent from that decision. Take a different direction.
In the case of Abraham, He came from a family of idol worship. He impacted God greatly in his decision to turn from idol worship of his son, Isaac, the blessing of God to follow after knowing God Himself.
Once you have realised how you have idolised the promises of God, you need to lift up this idol you love and kill it. For some of us, much like Abraham who came from a family of idol worshipers. It is usually something that has become encoded in our human DNA and so it would come as “natural” to us.
But through the decision to persue God, you are able to overcome your love for these idols and in making this decision to kill it, many times you receive such grace and mercy from God that you are then actually allowed to keep it. Simply, because you have determined to choose God over the blessing.
This also proves how curses are ONLY as powerful as the decisions you make.
This is where God meets us: at the place of brokenness. This is why the bible says in Psalms:
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalm 34:18 KJV
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Psalm 51:17 KJV
The poor widow knew that God saw her. She knew Jesus was teaching about her life infront of the rich and setting straight the societal injustice of that time. She deeply valued how this Rabbi went against the other Rabbi’s of that time and exposed their falsehood. She knew God answered her prayers.
The voice of God implores people to give their best. Thus, it is vital that when we teach we do so by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – but that is just a side-note.
The rich did not perceive that God could see their heart, that is why they gave from a place of reservation. They have not fully travelled the distance into Decision lane. Otherwise, they would have perceived that some of their riches may have come from unjust transactions involving the property of widows.
And this is probably why they gave the money in the offering basket, because they saw their Rabbi watching the offering basket and so they wanted to make a certain impression with their money to each other and perhaps even the Rabbi. They were not deeply moved by the plight of the widow in the story enough to give from an unreserved place.
The poor widow travelled the journey of loss (death of her husband), misuse and abuse from the pharisees and yet still wanted to listen to the teachings of God. She could have choosen to remain bitter and never listen to another Rabbi again. Yet, she decided not to be bitter and continued in her personal walk with God and sought to hear the Word of God.
How do we know this?
Just before mentioning the poor widow, Jesus warns against the pretentious scribes and pharisees who devour widow’s houses in Mark 12:38-40.
Imagine you lost someone you loved only to have your pastors whom you have regarded highly, take advantage of your inheritance thereafter. Speaking out against them was to go against highly regarded men. These pharisees were highly respected. Thus, giving is a type of worship which involves our heart and must be done in truth.
Why did the rich not give the widow the money directly?
Why did they even put it in the basket? Jesus was sitting over the treasury and so they likely wished that this great teacher (Jesus) see the amount of money given. Infact, it may have become a competition amoungst them. Whatever we give to God must never be in competition of the next person.
This is why Jesus spoke about pretences and doing things for a show. Their hearts were so blinded with impressing their Rabbi Jesus and each other, that they could not perceive the need of the poor widow in their midst, the very person Jesus was preaching about.
This poor widow gave out of her want (husterēsis) which means falling short (meaning specifically penury or extreme poverty). We need to surrender at our place of lack or weakness, at the places where we fall short and then give at that address. Thus, we are building or improving the property at 911 Decision Lane to reflect God’s grace instead of our own strength.
Whilst writing this, the Holy Spirit whispered this to me:
The way out of lack is to give out of it and not give up.
When we give out from this place, we touch God so greatly that a spiritual altar is errected. He causes our giving to outlive even our own life. Think about it, those two lowest denomination coins given by the poor widow, has been written about over and over again in millions if not billions of copies of manuscripts and printed bibles over 2000 years later. The cost of printing these re-prints far exceeds the monetary value of those two coins. And here I am writing a blog about it 21 centuries later!
Therefore, our giving today, will give God the mandate to speak over our life and touch the hearts and lives of people for generations after us.
This is why, even when we sing, or paint, or preach or prophesy that we do it in our best way possible. Because then only will our works outlive our life on Earth and continue to glorify God even after we have left this earth for generations to come.
May the music you produce, the churches you build, the clothes that you give to the poor resonate in the earth for generations to come! May your work outlive you and become a type of altar people can come back to when they need to recalibrate their spiritual life.
It all comes down to positioning ourselves in making the right decisions.
Thanks for reading! 🙂