Generosity

Greetings in grace my dear Beloved Family!

I pray you are looking for more and more opportunities to live your life in the authentic Liberty that has been granted to you through the Liberation of your Glorious Savior!

As many of you know, we are week-deep into Family Camp in Adeline, IL. This is a week set aside, an offering unto the Lord, to know and experience this authentic culture we have all matured into together. I know it seems that I speak incessantly about, “Koinonia,” (the intimate fellowship and communion of the saints), but it is only because it is a foundational and reoccurring principle in the Kingdom of our King. Remember that this whole story of humanity was birthed out of the Father’s passionate desire to share the family experience with His own children and not just with angels who could never return His agape love as a choice of their will.

If you know the Epistles very well, you would know that the letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians was permeated with joy. He used, “joy, rejoicing, joyful,” in 17 different places, and the whole letter is only four chapters. What is radical about this is that Paul authored this letter from prison (arrested for ministering the Good News of Jesus Christ) and was likely imprisoned for at least two to three years at this time. Yet, he was nearly overwhelmed with love, gratitude, and joy from and for the church at Philippi. One of the main reasons for this was because this was the only church that purposely, generously, and sincerely supplied for his needs and even desires. I can tell you as a minister, this is not the “norm” and has major impact in the heart of one who is called to serve others in the humble place of ministry. For Paul, it created great joy and appreciation for these folks in a way that was transparently expressed in his Epistle.

Philippians 1:5-7
For your fellowship (koinonia) in the gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

In these verses, we see that they were faithfully connected to him, “from the first day until now.” This is also a highly unique character among the masses of church people. Some people are able to change their loyalty like I change socks… but not these believers. This made Paul, “confident,” that the promises and progress that these saints were desiring and believing for would be, “performed,” or accomplished, until the final day. I want to highlight that Paul did not throw this type of, “confident,” statement around to just any church: he declared it to the church that understood commitment, partnership, and koinonia. He said that he is able (“meet”) to think this way about them because they moved deeply into his heart through the way they cared for and loved him (and each other) in word and deed.

One of the coolest parts of these verses is the amazing declaration that, “ye all are partakers of my grace”. I want to break this down a bit so you get what makes my heart flutter when I meditate on it:

• “ye all” – Because of their authentic koinonia, that created unity, he was confident that there were things happening universally among them all. This was a church that truly shared in a Kingdom culture, just like us Beloved!
• “are partakers” – This is a present tense and active truth that Paul was confident was manifesting as he was writing. “Partakers” is a compound word defined like this: a close companion or joint-sharer. They showed that distance, circumstance, the sufferings of life (or jail), and the persecution of the world COULD NOT separate their heart for Paul and Paul’s heart for them. They were a team that could not be divided. This is so relative to our unique Beloved family who travel from three states, many of you come one to two hours every week, and even multiple times a week, because there is something Divine that is attracting us to one another. It is so precious to me and I want you to know how deeply it impacts my heart…
• “my grace” – This is HUGE! Paul was so humble and had such deep revelation that he was able to literally have an ownership mentality of the grace of God operating in his life. That is a big WOW! I would also like to concur with the Apostle of Grace that I have recognized there are personally tuned types of grace that I have seen operate in me and my life and so I know that this is doctrinally sound because of the witness of scripture and the witness of my own life. As wonderful as that is (and it really is…) the icing on the cake is that we get to share our personal grace back and forth among each other! What a powerful promise to obtain as we grow together.

There is one very apparent and strong indicator of this Grace filled koinonia taking place in a culture… generosity. It still nukes my heart every time it see this happening among our Beloved family. I believe it is going to start to be more and more a pronounced part of our culture and I am giddy with anticipation to see how it will destroy the insidious working of the enemy who would like nothing more than to see us divided and contentious. Generosity kills contention. Look at this verse that Paul uses just a little later in this letter:

Philippians 4:15
Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

This is the “secret sauce” of how Paul could be so confident, expectant, joyful, and heartfelt for this specific body of believers. He was saying of all the churches he planted, they were the only ones who stayed faithful and loyal to provide for his needs monetarily and also in companionship (Epaphroditus, the messenger carrying the gift and the love of his church). I honestly have no legitimate idea how many bodies of believers were started by Paul up to this time, but it was a large number. Yet, there was something special about this bunch that made them do the hard, but beautiful, part of koinonia… generosity.

I pray that you are meditating on these words and allowing the Father to show you the different ways and people that He is encouraging you to impact with this divine trait. Remember, it was the Father’s great love, and desire for fellowship, that made Him send Jesus and generously give us the very best through the Finished Work of the Cross. Now we enjoy eternal life because of that Gospel gift.

I adore you more and more!
Steve