DREAM ABOUT FINANCES!    The "Tool Fund"!         DO 2937  8/94

         1. I had a dream with a message that if the Lord's children gave abundantly, the Lord would more than give to them abundantly, and therefore they would have a tremendous income! In the dream the Lord was giving several examples of men who gave, like R.G. LeTourneau. He started out giving 10% and living on the 90%, and the Lord so blessed him for it that pretty soon he was living on the 10% and giving 90%! The more he gave, the more the Lord gave, and he just couldn't outgive God!
         2. The picture was that the Family became very very blessed financially. Because we gave so much, the Lord gave so much (Luke 6:38). We not only would be a spiritual power, but the Lord would make us a financial power!
         3. The question was, "Who is not giving?" Somehow, somewhere, somebody is not giving enough. I don't see how we here in this Home could give any more, and our other units are also very frugal. Our administration is living on only 5% of WS's total income. In other words, we are giving back 95% of our missionaries' tithes to them in services, publications and financial support to needy fields.
         4. I just know that you can't outgive God, and that if the Family were giving enough, the Lord would give us enough financially. The Family is giving more than enough of their lives and their services, but why is it that the Lord is not blessing them more financially?
         5. The Homes barely scrape by and give their 10%, but the Lord promised to give us more than enough if we were giving enough. He said He'd "open the windows of Heaven and pour out such a blessing there wouldn't be room enough to hold it" (Mal.3:10). But He also said in the passage of Scripture I got, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee?--In tithes and offerings" (Mal.3:8). Could it be that they give their tithe, but they're not giving offerings?
         6. Another important point is that our people are not asking enough. They're giving everything they can, but they are not asking enough. The Lord said specifically, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Mat.7:7). He expects us to go looking for it, knocking for it and asking for it.
         7. The picture was almost unbelievable in this dream, that if we were giving as we should, and no doubt asking as we should, we could actually become financially powerful. Our enemies have plenty of financing, in the millions! Why should the Family be starving and begging? (Maria: We've got so much that we could do with the money--so many projects and things that would be so helpful not only to the Family, but to outsiders as well!)
         8. Is the Family failing to give? Is WS giving all it can? (Maria: WS has wanted to give more, but we have tried to keep from dipping into our reserves, as you've always taught us.) Well, are we to reserve or are we to give? To reserve means to keep back. Maybe we need to give out most of our reserves, sharing them with our Homes. (Maria: At various times, we have given a large percentage of our WS reserves to our Homes.)
         9. Somebody somewhere is lacking in giving! Could it be us? Could it be World Services? Who is it? That was the message, that we are not giving enough. Maybe we're all not giving enough. Maybe the Family is not giving enough along with World Services, or God would be mightily blessing us financially, pouring out so much that we'd not be able to hold it, we'd have to give it away.
         10. (Maria: Some of our Homes are so bad off financially that they don't even have enough money to buy the posters, tapes and videos they need from the PPCs. So they run out of tools, and then they can't get out any of the tools in their witness, nor get donations as a result.
         11. (One of our PPC shepherds just suggested that one of the biggest needs of our Homes right now is funds to stock up on tools. It's really because of the Homes' poor management that they've gotten into such bad shape that they have no money to buy the posters, tapes and videos, but he was asking if WS could do something to give them a boost.)
         12. Of course! Let's do it! Let's give the utmost we possibly can! Let's do it! I think they're failing to ask and we are failing to give. And I think this is an emergency!
         13. Let's give until it hurts! Maybe we don't need to keep in reserve what we think is enough to carry us over. Maybe if we'd give more, we'd have more than enough to carry us over in case of an emergency. I'd say the Homes are in a state of emergency right now. So let's give them the tools so that they can do the job. Let's do it now! And that will take most of our reserve funds.
         14. So praise the Lord! That's the vision and the message! Now let's obey it! Let's do it and see what happens. The Lord in His Word says, "See if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it!" Let's get it there immediately! Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus!
         15. Lord, You never fail Your Word, and if we obey, You bless it. We got that Scripture, and apparently we have not been giving enough. We need to give away most of our reserves to supply the Homes with the tools with which they can do the job.
         16. Praise the Lord! I feel better about it already! Lord forgive us for not giving them enough and not giving all we could and holding back too much in our reserves. Help us to give them away now to be a help to the Family, in Jesus' name. Amen!
         17. Praise the Lord! I've delivered my soul. What the Lord showed me was almost unbelievable--the financial power that we could become and how He would bless us if we gave enough. I thought we were giving all we could, but apparently the Lord wants us to give more.
         18. Of course, I hope the Family realizes we're not saying you shouldn't hold reserves. We're just sacrificing most of our reserves so they can build up their reserves, knowing the Lord will repay. The Family has a need, and we want to do all we can to help them and to fill the need, but we're not trying to downplay the importance of reserves, and I hope they don't get that impression.
         19. Reserves are important! That's why we've set up the HER funds for the Family and encouraged them to keep a Home Buffer fund and a reserve of survival food and equipment for emergencies. In fact, we hope they'll not only build up their tools fund but all their buffers and reserves so we can be prepared for the future, for whatever happens. I've taught this for years!
         20. So when you see us giving away our reserves, dear Family, it's not because we don't believe in reserves, but because the Lord told us to give them to you. We have the faith that He is going to repay in a big way, and, in fact, He's already begun to. Praise the Lord!
         21. That was a very encouraging dream. It just spoke so specifically about how if we'd give everything we've got, the Lord would give more until there would not even be room enough to hold it!


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family