We are walking in today: Weekend Meditation--The Most High Gives Us His Potential
Witness give throughout the Bible: H5414 nathan-- to give, grant, permit, ascribe, dedicate, pay wages, entrust, give over, deliver up, yield produce, report
Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given H5414 you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
The Torah testifies...............
Deuteronomy 3:18 And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given H5414 you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.
The prophets proclaim..................
Isaiah 40:29 He giveth H5414 power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
The writings bear witness...........................
Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give H5414 grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Zechariah 8:12 For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give H5414 her fruit, and the ground shall give H5414 her increase, and the heavens shall give H5414 their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
The Most High Is a Giver
The Most High is constantly releasing seeds into the soil of your life. He is a giver and He created you to be like Him. The foundation of The Most High’s giving nature is revealed in His purpose for creating men and women.
The Most High made Adam and Eve so He would have someone to love and bless—more children like HaMaschich, His Incarnate Son. Although The Most High possessed all He had created, those things were useless to Him until He created man to release their potential by using His creations and, thereby, showing off His fullness.
In essence, The Most High, who is love, created man to fulfill His potential to love. Love is worthless until it is given away. It must have an object to be fulfilled. Therefore, The Most High needed something on which He could lavish His love, something that could understand and appreciate what He had to give. Of all The Most High’s creatures, only men and women share The Most High’s Spirit and, thus, can appreciate His love. You are the object of The Most High’s love. Because love can be fulfilled only when the receiver of love is like the giver, He created you like Himself, to be loved by Him and to love as He loves.
The Mutuality of Giving
Think about the last time you bought a card or a gift for a spouse or a close friend. Much of the pleasure in giving the gift is found in choosing something that will delight the one to whom you are giving it. The gift’s meaning is found in the shared love of the giver and the recipient.
This is the meaning of Yeshua’ words:
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces (Matthew 7:6).
A pet cannot appreciate a diamond ring, but your sweetheart will. Why? She understands the thoughts and the feelings that both prompted the gift and are revealed in it. The one who receives a gift must understand and appreciate the giver before the gift can have meaning. Through giving love is released.
You have been physically birthed by the giving of your parents and spiritually birthed by the giving of HaMaschich. Even as your parents gave the seed of their bodies to release their potential to produce another human being, so Yeshua HaMaschich gave the seed that brings new life by releasing His potential to be a Savior. Their giving brings you life and the opportunity to continue the cycle of giving. Joy is found in participating in the pattern of giving, receiving, and giving again.
This pattern of releasing potential by giving and receiving is particularly visible in the biblical concept of a blessing.
Blessed to Be a Blessing
The giving of a blessing is an important image in Scripture. Whether it is The Most High, a father, or some other person giving the blessing, it is a gift that exposes possibilities and releases power. The Most High
blessed Adam and Eve (see Genesis 1:28), and Noah and his sons (see Genesis 9:1), by calling forth from them the potential to be fruitful, to increase in number, and to fill the earth. Likewise, He blessed Sarah, the wife of Abraham, when He released the possibility that she would be a mother (see Genesis 17:15-16). Isaac passed the power to be the lord of the family on to Jacob when he blessed him (see Genesis 27:27-29). Jacob in turn blessed each of his sons, unveiling the future of each one (see Genesis 49). In each case, the blessing confirmed what The Most High had already purposed for the one who received the blessing.
Blessings are never given solely for the benefit of the one who receives them. That means all The Most High has given you—your clothes, food, house, car, bike, education, intelligence, personality, etc.—are given to you so you can maximize them by sharing them. You cannot release the full potential of anything if you do not share it.
Blessings are never given solely for the benefit of the one who receives them. Abraham not only received a blessing from The Most High; he was also made a blessing to others: I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:2-3).
The same was true for Abraham’s wife, Sarah (see Genesis 17:16), his son Isaac (see Genesis 26:4), and his grandson Jacob (see Genesis 28:14). The Most High’s blessing also worked through Jacob’s son Joseph, who preserved The Most High’s people through a severe famine. Each passed on The Most High’s blessings so others could be blessed. The Most High operates from this perspective: “I’m going to share with you so you will be blessed by My sharing and you, in turn, will bless others by your sharing.” He gives to you so you can share His potential by being motivated to pass on all He gives you. Therefore, the task of humanity is to emulate the attitude of The Most High by drawing from each person all he or she possesses. You exist to pull things from me, and I exist to pull things from you.
The Most High finds joy in giving to you so you can give to others. He blesses you to bless another. No matter what your circumstances are, there is some way you can share your potential with others. If you are homebound, give yourself through prayer or the ministry of encouragement through cards, letters, and phone calls. Or perhaps you are retired with few financial resources but much time. Pour yourself into a child.
Whatever your blessings, find some way to share them. This is The Most High’s intention for giving them to you. Your gifts may be different from mine, but their value is equal if we serve the same Lord with the same Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:1-7). Your gifts are for me and my gifts are for you. Together we can bless the world. This is how potential is released.
Receiving Without Giving Results in Destruction
True joy is found not in what you accomplish but in who benefits from your success. Dying to yourself and giving for me and others will reap for you the joy of seeing your efforts reproduced many times over in us. Your sharing will give life to many.
If, however, you refuse to share, you will destroy both The Most High’s joy in giving to you and your joy in passing on what He gives. You will also forfeit His blessings because those who wish to receive from the abundance of The Most High must use wisely all He gives. This is true because selfishness concerns itself only with its own prosperity and well-being. It lacks interest in the concerns and needs of others.
You cannot emulate the giving nature of The Most High if you retain all you have for your own wants and needs; neither can your bucket draw from the deep waters in me. Such selfishness kills potential and lessens the likelihood that you will be blessed by my potential.
True wisdom is understanding this interdependence: “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out” (Proverbs 20:5). This cannot occur, however, if we are consumed by thoughts of ourselves.
Selfishness Destroys Personal Happiness and Satisfaction
You were created to give. When you lavish your potential on yourself, your potential and all you accomplish by using it lose their meaning. King Solomon learned this when he went through life doing one thing after another for himself.
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
I undertook great projects.... I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs.... I bought male and female slaves.... I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself....I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless....So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to one who comes after me. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear The Most High and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For The Most High will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3; 2:4-8, 10-11,17-18; 12:13-14).
Work and effort that focus on self are meaningless. It doesn’t matter what you accomplish, none of it will bring you satisfaction unless you give from what you have. Nor will your accumulated riches bring you happiness, for they are useless and meaningless if you don’t understand and seek to fulfill The Most High’s purpose for giving them to you.
Work and effort that focus on self are meaningless.
You must share what you earn before it can bring you pleasure and satisfaction because sharing ensures that the blessings you have received will be passed on and others will also be blessed. This basic principle of sharing is foundational for maximizing your potential.
If you refuse to share, your potential will kill you because you cannot enjoy freedom in your conscience when you are acting against your natural design to give. Pleasure will end, but conscience abides until it has completed its assignment. It works on you until you acknowledge
the error of your ways. Only by releasing all The Most High has given you can you have a pure and holy conscience before Him and find meaning in life. Pursuing selfish pleasure always destroys the one who seeks it. In a similar manner, un-shared potential consumes the person who seeks to hold it tightly for selfish gain.
Selfishness Destroys the Joy of Giving
First, selfishness destroys The Most High’s pleasure in watching you pass on all He has given you. Near the end of His life, Yeshua reminded His disciples that they could not accomplish anything apart from Him. The same is true for our lives. Even as Yeshua remained in fellowship and conversation with The Most High throughout His life, so we must abide in Him.
Without this consistent association with The Most High, our fruitfulness suffers and we become no more than a branch to be thrown into the fire. The power of potential is gone. (See John 15.)
This absence of power hurts both the person who has withdrawn from The Most High and The Most High Himself. He created us to bear fruit that reflects His nature and glory. When we neglect to fulfill this purpose, we grieve the heart of The Most High.
The Most High’s pleasure in Yeshua was evident when He spoke from a cloud at the time of Yeshua’ baptism and again on the mountain of transfiguration (see Matthew 3:17 and 17:5). The source of His pleasure was Yeshua’ willingness to fulfill the purpose for which He had been sent into the world and to release His potential. By Myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment
is just, for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me (John 5:30).
He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him (John 7:18).
The one who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do what pleases Him (John 8:29).
I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began. I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word.... All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine. And glory has come to Me through them.... I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them (John 17:4-6,10,13).
What was this full measure of joy that Yeshua knew? Let us fix our eyes on Yeshua, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of The Most High (Hebrews 12:2).
Obedience. Yeshua found joy in doing what The Most High asked of Him. The path of sorrows certainly did not bring Him happiness while He walked it, but He looked beyond the pain and shame to the reward of reclaiming His rightful place at the right hand of The Most High.
This is also the source of The Most High’s pleasure in us. As we obediently share all that The Most High has given us for the world, we will find that He delights in us. If, however, we decline to fulfill His plans and purposes and refuse to allow His nature and likeness to govern our thoughts and actions, we destroy the fullness of joy we could have brought Him had we sought His purposes and obeyed His principles.
Secondly, selfishness destroys the joy of giving. When we hoard and hide what we receive from The Most High, we deny ourselves the delights of passing on The Most High’s gifts. The second letter of the apostle Paul to the church at Corinth reveals this delight.
Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.
Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints....So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving (2 Corinthians 8:2-4,6-7).
The Macedonian churches understood that sharing is a privilege to be sought and enjoyed. Therefore, they gave even when they had little. We do well to learn this same lesson. It is not the magnitude of our gift but simply the act of sharing that produces joy. When we refuse to share we deny ourselves this benefit.
Third, selfishness destroys the joy of seeing others share what we have given them. The apostle Paul also speaks of this joy.
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of HaMaschich Yeshua (Philippians 1:4-6).
Partnership speaks of sharing. When we fail to share our potential, this partnership is forfeited and the fruit for which we were chosen and appointed is lost.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name (John 15:16).
The Most High mourns for this loss because the loss of potential limits His activity on earth and destroys the joy of sharing—for The Most High, for ourselves, and for those with whom we might have shared. Selfishness always destroys the joy of giving.
Selfishness Destroys the Gift
The Most High is often hurt because people are pregnant with great treasure but they keep it to themselves. Say, for example, that you are a medical researcher who discovers a cure for leukemia. Instead of sharing the results of your research with others, you carefully guard your secret knowledge so no one else can take credit for your discovery. Meanwhile, many people needlessly die. In time, your The Most High-given talent to heal will be destroyed. Because you are so concerned that someone may receive the recognition you deserve, you will lose the desire to study and to receive new medical insights. Your selfishness in keeping the treasure to yourself ultimately destroys the very gift that is the source of your wealth. Potential that is not shared self-destructs.
Selfishness Stops the Flow of The Most High’s Blessings
Finally, selfishness destroys the cycle of giving initiated by The Most High. Very often you have not because you lavish upon yourself all you have received. The Most High will give you all things if you ask to receive so you may pass it on to others. I’m blessed because I have a passion to pass on to you all that The Most High has given to me.
The Most High expects you to pass on to another all He has poured into you. Get rid of it. Make room for more of the vast quantity He has prepared to pour into you. You hold up The Most High’s plans and purposes when you cling to your blessings, and you cap off your potential when you refuse to share all you have received. Yeshua said:
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38).
The Most High expects you to pass on to another all He has poured into you. Some of you are blessed with tremendous talents, gifts, and knowledge. I wonder what is happening to them. Flow with your The Most High-given abilities. Use them to bless others and to glorify The Most High. Don’t worry if your gifts and talents aren’t as grand as you’d like. Use them to benefit others, and you will see them grow. Sharing all The Most High has given you is a must if you want to maximize your potential.
Principles
1. Potential cannot be maximized and fulfilled unless it is shared.
2. The Most High shares with you so you can share with others.
3. Isolation is not good because it prevents sharing.
4. You must share your potential within the limits of The Most High’s laws.
5. Giving transforms and reveals potential.
6. The Most High’s blessings in your life expose His power within you and the possibilities that are your potential.
7. The selfish retention of The Most High’s gifts destroys:
• The Most High’s joy in giving,
• your personal happiness and fulfillment,
• your joy in giving to others,
• your joy in watching others share what they have received from you,
• the gifts that are given,
• the continuing evidence in your life of The Most High’s blessings.
8. Giving your potential to others is a basic key to maximizing all that The Most High has given you for your blessing and the benefit of others.
Shema selah only in the gift you have received being given are you living in the Most High's purpose for what you have been blessed with to bless others!
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