Proverbs 3:10 “Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine”

It seemed like a normal Sunday in church, but I felt like there was something different, there was a rawness about me, something fierce and wonderful moving inside me, emotions and pleasure and apprehension all at once. In the service I sang at the top of my voice, I could not help myself. The person behind me prodded me in the back, maybe concerned for what others may think, but I just did not care.

I had become a Christian around about a month earlier, and I was on fire, leading others to the Lord, having all night prayer times, and so full of gratitude to God. In the middle of the service as we all prayed and were still I felt the strangest, quiet, yet rushing wind slip through my body. I felt every area of me being touched. I burst into tears and cried for what seemed like ages, not dignified in any shape or form, but deep groaning, rasping cries, from the sole of my feet and through my chest, my whole body involved and tears and snot everywhere. I felt clean on the inside. That night I slept like a baby.

The next day I was driving to the city and as I left the town I saw a young lady I knew hitchhiking at the edge of the town. She jumped in and she wanted to go to the city I was heading towards, so I took her there with me. I had a bible in the front of the car and that led to a discussion. She said that when she saw the bible she had hoped I would talk to her as she was searching for more in life. We talked about Jesus the whole way (three hours drive) and then I dropped her off in the city.

 

As I was driving to my destination about 40 mins further away, I started to sing in a strange language with words that made no sense but felt so good. I wanted to lift my hands in praise. It was wonderful, as I sang in these new words I felt such a spiritual wellness overflow in me.

I had no idea what was happening to me, and it was later on that week in talking to the pastor that I discovered what the bible said about being baptised in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.

I really had very little money, lived in a small room in a house with five other people, yet somehow I was the richest man in the world.

KNOWLEDGE

Wow – the outcomes! In the culture of the day that this was written the outcomes described in this verse would be the best possible indication of blessing and opportunity. You have sought God with everything you have, you have been careful to make morally pure decisions every step of every way of every day.  You are continually in a place of waiting on God, when you are busy and when you are at rest, you are still. Your heart is “all in” to this journey, this is no mechanical exercise or functional pursuit. This is an adventure of the heart, everything is given, nothing held back.

You don’t have enough room for what God is doing in your life, there is a constant overflow. Love is spilling over everywhere you go, you can’t help but be a blessing. Every space you have is filled with the blessing of God, underground, overground. There is a fresh sweetness in the hollow of the rock – the hidden places, the vanishing point – where you are hidden in Christ, who existed before time and will exist after time.

 

Where in life you have been crushed, God is bringing out blessings, where in life you have been hidden, God is bringing honour, and where in life there has been emptiness, God is filling with his presence and his blessings. All you had was empty barns, and an empty winepress, a willing heart and a new day. God has done the rest, he has provided the overflow, the increase, the continual abundant supply. He will “prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies”. [Psalm 23:5]

UNDERSTANDING

Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?

The original Hebrew word for “plenty” is pronounced “saba” and appears 8 times in the Old Testament. Other than in Ecc 5:12 where it is translated as “full stomach” [ESV] it is translated as, “plenty” and “plentiful”. Six of the eight mentions are in Gen 41, where the story of the seven full years is told. For us reading Proverbs this word can be understood as, abundance or overflow.

 

 

WISDOM: What are you bringing to the table each new day?

 

STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Achiever – the more you give, the more you have. Value people over process every time.

 

 

Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [every place where you can store blessings will have full satisfaction to overflowing. Even your hidden and secret places will give birth to new wine.]

 

PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Please help me to be a blessing as you have blessed me, and share the goodness of God generously in every season. Thank you.

 

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