overflow – PAOLOPUNZALAN.COM

OUT OF THE OVERFLOW

It is said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Have you ever experienced a time when you said something and you realized it was coming out of an overflow from what’s on the inside?
Frustration?
Anger?
Disappointment?

Or on the other hand it could be something positive.
Faith.
Love.
Joy.
Excitement.

I remember a time when I was praying for provision for my family. I knew that God said that “He shall supply all my needs in Christ.” I knew that the Word tells me to trust in the Lord with all my heart. But the next phrase that came out of my mouth was “what if it doesn’t happen?”

What I had in my heart eventually came out. What I believed or didn’t believe was ultimately articulated.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:13, “I believed, and so I spoke.”

As a result, I endeavored to fill my heart with the Word for the Bible says that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)
When my heart is filled with God’s Word, it will eventually overflow and influence my speech and ultimately my actions.

Lord, help me go to Scriptures each and every day to fill my heart with words of life not death, strength not weakness, and joy not sorrow. May your Word be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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I mentioned yesterday that I will start a series on the miracles of Jesus. However, due to the Prayer and Fasting week, I’d like to jump off from the devotionals given that can be found in Victory’s website.

OUT OF AN OVERFLOW (#TindogTacloban)

This is Mang Simon.

After Yolanda hit (typhoon Haiyan), they’re house was completely destroyed which was why they were relocated to Cebu temporarily.

I met him at Victory Tacloban when I preached last Sunday.

I was introduced to him by Kix Javier, our executive pastor and Lifebox Campus Missionary there.

Mang Simon told me not only their experience during the typhoon but also after the typhoon. When they got to Cebu, they met a family that took them in, shared their blessings to his family, provided for them in the meantime. But more importantly, the Mercado family from Cebu shared Jesus to them.

One Sunday, they invited Mang Simon and his family to church. Since then, they’ve been attending services and when Mang Simon went back to Tacloban, his first order of the day was to locate our church there.

Mang Simon relayed to me how blown away he has been.

“Hindi ako makapaniwala na may ganoong mga tao pa din pala… mapagbigay, maalaga and maka-Diyos.”
(I couldn’t believe that there’s still people like them who were generous, thoughtful and godly.)

He was so touched that he was in tears and gave me a hug after.

You see, it doesn’t have to be Christmas for us to practice generosity. The Mercado family gave out of an overflow… an overflow from their relationship with Jesus.
And as they did, a family has been touched by the gospel.

This is how we take over a city with the gospel of Jesus – one person, one family, one community at a time.

HE IS AFTER OUR HEARTS NOT OUR MONEY

Our OVERFLOW series has really been very inspiring. The past few weeks, we have been asking God to break some mindsets that don’t need to be there.

We’ve been hearing stories about God’s provision particularly in the area of sowing and reaping.

Here’s another one by “May”.

One day I was believing God for a 24-inch iMac and an L-Series Canon lens. God impressed in my heart, that if I’m believing Him for greater things, I must also learn how to give greater things. That day I felt God was letting me bless my Macbook to someone. I struggled for a week coz that Macbook was my life (so to speak)! Anyways, I decided to let go of it and obeyed the persistent voice. I cleaned my files and put the laptop in the box already and declared that it was no longer mine. The following day, we got an unexpected call from my Tita. She was giving our family 1.5M pesos! We got the money and it was divided among us siblings. A week passed and I got my iMac and my lens plus an all-expense paid trip to Tokyo. 🙂

Here’s the thing: when I gave the Macbook to the person, she was in tears because she was praying for a laptop before she leaves for Japan and I gave it to her exactly the day before her trip. How God works!

Anyways, I’ve realized that God is never after the amount of what we give. But he’s after our hearts. It just so happened that that macbook was my life and he wanted me to let go of it to see if I really trust Him. If all I had was 100 pesos and I gave it all to God, then I guess that’s something big too! 🙂

Father God,

I repent for believing the lies of the enemy.

I believe that it is not Your will for me to be in lack.

I renounce anything that holds Your abundance from me.

I renounce anything that I have spoken against prosperity and success in my life.

I renounce poverty and the spirit of poverty.

I thank You Lord that You are not against me, but You are for me. You are my source, the One who supplies all of my needs according to Your glorious riches in Christ.

You will supply me bread for food.

You will supply me seeds to sow.

I will sow and I will be generous on all occasion.

I will be patient and I will wait.

I believe that I will have a mighty harvest!

LORD God I receive your provision, prosperity and success.

In Jesus’ name, Amen!

CAN YOU OUTGIVE GOD?

Jon (not his real name) emailed me and shared a story about God’s amazing provision.

Our OVERFLOW series has been ‘overflowing’ stories of God’s faithfulness.

Is it possible to outgive God? That’s just not quite possible.

Here’s his story.

6 years ago, I started to sow my tithe properly (gross of taxes instead of net) and give a little extra to a mission partner. It was a big deal for me coz I’m very particular with saving money. Taxes were around 25%, tithe 10% and offering about another 5-10%, so all in all, I was going to give away 40 to 45% of my salary at that time.

Since that time, I have received a promotion or a special salary upgrade (if not both) every year. My salary is 5 times of what it was 6 years ago. Still expecting a promotion this year even though the year is about to end, and I have already received one at the start of the year. I’ve been sent on work related trips to Moscow, NY, Vietnam, HK, China, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. I have a “storehouse” that God constantly blesses. I have a beautiful wife and a soon to come son. God’s grace has allowed me to earn the trust of local top management (they say so themselves). I’m not toiling at work.

The best thing about it is that the best is yet to come!

GETTING RID OF MONEY

Ryan, our 7 year old, had a few hundred pesos one time and wanted to buy several toys – from Bey Blade to Action Figures. He realized he only had a limited budget and was wanting to have more.

My wife, Jenn, tried to explain to Ryan to guard his heart and be watchful because ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.’ (1 Tim. 6:10)

To this Ryan answered, “That’s why want to spend it all! I want to get rid of money.”

Kids are too smart these days…

P.S. Our OVERFLOW series has been amazing these past couple of weeks all over the Metro. In case you missed last weekend’s message because you had an important “appointment” with Manny, you can log on Victory Fort’s Livestream or download podcasts from Victory Pastors Metro wide.