WHERE TO KEEP YOUR TREASURE
WHERE TO TREASURE UP THINGS
You can refer to treasure as a deposit itself or a place where good and precious things are collected and stored up. There are two places where we can deposit things according to the Bible.The first place is heaven and the other place is in our heart..
TREASURING IN HEAVEN
Mat 6:19-21 KJV 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The Greek word used for treasure in the New Testament is “thēsauros” and according to Thayer and Strong concordance dictionary, it means:
Thayer Definition: The place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up, a casket, coffer, or other receptacle, in which valuables are kept, a treasury, storehouse, repository, magazine, the things laid up in a treasury, collected treasures
Strong’s Definition: a deposit, that is, wealth (literally or figuratively): – treasure.
In the passage above the Lord was admonishing the disciples on the danger of setting their hearts on the mundane things of the world as against the things of God. We are counselled not to accumulate treasure on the earth because those things are temporal and are subject to destruction. They don’t last. To the people in oriental time, treasure are things they love to display and boast of. They place so much value on raiments, gold and houses. The Lord said such things like clothes can be destroyed by moths, it can eat up the clothes and make them useless. The metals are subjected to rust and the houses can be broken into by robbers and valuables stolen.
However, He admonished them to still lay up treasure and this time around in heaven. How could one lay up treasure in heaven while living on earth? How will it get there? Besides, Job said naked we come to the world and naked we will go Job 1:21, so how can we carry the treasure to heaven then?
The Lord is saying if we are not laying treasure on earth, we should lay them up in heaven where those destructive agents and things have no access. The goods there can not be stolen because they don’t have thieves there. The moth can not get to the place and the metals there are incorruptible.
When one travels out of his country to a foreign land as a merchant working, he could earn so much money but how will he get those money to his home country? All he needs to do is to go to his bank and get what is called a bill of exchange whereby he can transfer the money he has in the foreign bank account to his local or country currency at home based on the exchange rate that is set up. In modern times we have for instance Western Union, etc.
In the same vein, you can send your treasures here on earth to heaven your future home through acts of kindness, favoured rendered to people, alms given to the widow, motherless children and charitable gifts given. When you pay your tithe and give an offering to the Church or better still when you sow seed or give a vow to a worthy cause, you are definitely sending your treasure ahead of you. All the time when you went about preaching and winning souls will be rewarded. All acts of generosity shall not go unrewarded.
1Co 3:13-15 KJV 13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
2Co 5:10 KJV For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad
When we stand before the judgement seat of Christ, we are not to be judged about eternity but to receive rewards for what we have done in the body while on earth. All our efforts will not go unrewarded. The writer of the book of Hebrew says God is not unfaithful to forget the labour of love which we have ministered to the saints.
1Co 9:25 KJV And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
The blessings of heaven that shall be bestowed on the righteous are often represented under the image of a crown or diadem; a crown that is unfading, and eternal; 2Ti 4:8; Jam 1:12; 1Pe 5:4. Rev 2:10; Rev 3:11; Rev 4:4. The blessing of crowns is due to the efforts we put into the kingdom on earth. When in the sun and rain, we endeavour to minister the word, visit the sick and the prisoners, clothes the naked and comforts the sorrowful. Mt 25: 35
Everything answers to seed. Seed is the parental form of all creation. Our acts and conducts in life are seen as seed.
TREASURING IN THE HEART
Mat 12:35 KJV A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
A good man is a man that has been regenerated 2Cor 5:17. He is holy and righteous Ephe 4: 24. His heart is purified by faith. This man brings forth good from what he has treasured in his heart. What are those things he has treasured and how did they get there?
The greatest force on earth is word. Words are very powerful. The book of proverbs says the power of death and life lies in the tongue. The Lord Jesus says by your word you will be judged and by your word you will be justified. He Himself said the words that He speaks are life and the spirit. When God was talking to Jeremiah, He said He had put His word in his mouth and in another place He said the word in Jeremiah will be fire. The book of James said with our tongue we can bridle our body even though the tongue is a very small member of the body just like a big ship is controlled by a small rudder and a big horse is controlled by putting a bit in the mouth. Our words are life changing and can also wreak havoc if improperly used.
God gave us the same ability to speak that He has. It is amazing that it is only man that has the ability to speak among the creations of God. Man is a speaking spirit.
With that ability we have, we are to speak words. The question is what kind of word are we to speak?
2Co 4:13 KJV We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
Rom 10:8 KJV But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
How does faith come or how do we get the faith?
Rom 10:17 KJV So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things that are not seen Heb 11: 1. Actually faith is our positive response to what Christ has already done. When we believe those things that He has done, faith rises.
In Mark 4: 1-8, Jesus gave the parable of the sower and when the disciples asked Him the meaning of the parable, the Lord told them.
Mar 4:14 KJV The sower soweth the word.
Luk 8:11 KJV Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
The hearts are different soils on which the seeds were planted.The seed has no problem. It is the soil that determines whether the seed will germinate and bring forth fruit unto abundance or it will be choked up by thorns, cares of this life and deceitfulness of riches.
The seed is the word of God that is planted. We filled our heart with the word of God. We are to actively speak the word of God because as we speak and believe those things, they are implanted in our heart building up a wealth of treasure.
One of the ways of getting the right word is to meditate on the word of God Jos 1: 8. When we meditate, the word paints the picture in our heart and that word becomes the seed. Meditation is the process of reflecting on the word of God after reading it. It is like when an animal has eaten grass and then comes back to sit, regurgitate those grass and chew them all over again before swallowing them.
We think in pictures. God uses this fact to bring Abraham to a point of faith. Abraham had expressed some concerns about the promises of God, so one night God brought him out and asked him to count the number of the stars in heaven, he could not so God said unto him “so shall thy seed be” On another occasion, God told him to number the sands on the seashore, he tried but it was an impossible act. With these pictures in the minds of Abraham, he believed God and God counted that as righteousness.
God went further in Gen 17 by changing the names of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah with wonderful meanings. Rom 4:17 says God calls those things that be not as though they were. So each time Abraham hears his name, he does not hear Abram but he hears the father of many nations and the same thing applies to Sarah, she did not hear Sarai but the mother of many nations.
God used these methods to drive home His point so Abraham began to speak the same word that God spoke, calling those things that be not as though they were. In less than a year, Isaac came.
When a woman conceives she has to give birth when her term is completed, the law of Genesis comes into play here. If the word has been planted and you are pregnant with it, then it is time to give birth to it. The picture you see now gives expression to it. This is the reason why Jesus said a good man brings forth good out of the good treasure or deposit in his heart.
Pro 18:20 KJV A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.
The outcome of your mouth is what is being referred to as the fruit, there can be no fruit if there is no seed time.
Cultivate the habit of speaking the word of God because by that you are already sowing into your heart which is the womb of the spirit. And when you begin to speak again, you release what has been planted.
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