FREELY RECEIVE, FREELY GIVE
Kevin Martin
Matthew 10:7, 8 NKJV
And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
How often I have read this verse without giving much thought to the last portion; “Freely you have received, freely give.” But what we have received is so over the top, it needs a great deal of attention. Likewise, what it means to freely give deserves as much attention. So let’s pay attention to what we have received and how to give as freely as we have received.
What Do We Freely Receive?
Psalm 55:1-3 NKJV
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.
Whatever we need for our spirit and soul is fully provided by our living God. And what God provides is a delight to our soul. He invites us to come and be satisfied without concern about any sort of payment. All is provided in the everlasting covenant. As God showed mercy to David, David showed mercy to King Saul and his sons. God’s mercies are abundant and free to the humble heart in submission to God.
Freely we have received salvation, healing, deliverance, the deep hidden treasures of the Kingdom: anointing to minister the love and power of God; in short, all the gifts of God’s love and goodness available in the New Covenant. Included are the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of Holy Spirit which empower us to freely minister to others.
Do we freely receive? Or do we add our own requirements?
Romans 10: 2, 3 NKJV For I bear (Israel) witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
If we decide what requirements we believe it will take for God to give His good gifts to us, we forget that we cannot perform up to any set of moral laws, God’s, or our own. How? Anything that contravenes faith as the only means of receiving God’s righteousness becomes a curse of the law and destines us to failure (Galatians 3:10-14). We will deny ourselves what God has declared He will give freely; by only believing Him. (Galatians 3:1-5)
But let us choose instead to declare our freedom in Christ:
“I will not put myself back under the law and destine myself for failure.”
“I will not create for myself a whole new set of laws to be accepted by God,
“Nor will I create laws for other to be accepted by God!” (James 4:11, 12)
“I am saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ!” (Eph 2:8, 9)
Romans 8:31, 32 NKJV
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Father God and Holy Spirit freely gave us Jesus. Jesus freely gives us Holy Spirit. Jesus freely reveals Father God to us so we can know Him as Jesus knows Him. (Matthew 10:21-24) Together they freely give us adoption as sons and daughters in the kingdom and they freely give us their powerful love! (Colossians 1:13, Galatians 3:1-5) So He gives us the kingdom, along with everything else because the price He paid eliminated our debt to sin under the Law of Moses; a covenant of law we could never live up to.
Romans 3:21-25a, 27, 28 TPT But now, independently of the law, the righteousness of God is tangible and brought to light through Jesus, the Anointed One. This is the righteousness that the Scriptures prophesied would come. It is God’s righteousness made visible through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And now all who believe in him receive that gift. For there is really no difference between us, for we all have sinned and are in need of the glory of God. Yet through his powerful declaration of acquittal, God freely gives away his righteousness. His gift of love and favor now cascades over us, all because Jesus, the Anointed One, has liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!
Romans 10:4 TPT For the Christ is the end of the law. And because of him, God has transferred his perfect righteousness to all who believe.
Christ is the end of the law. End: termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be; the end, the last in any succession or series; that by which a thing is finished, its close
Jesus did not teach against the Law – because the people He taught were still under the Old Covenant Law of Moses and would be until He, Jesus, fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. This He did by sacrificing His sinless human life on the cross and initiating the New Covenant for our sakes.
Once I understood this, I entered a journey of learning the distinctions between living under a mixture of grace through faith yet under the Law of Moses, compared to living fully in the New Covenant by the blood of Christ through faith alone. There is no condemnation in Christ. There no longer will be offerings for sin, as under the Old Covenant, for there is a change of law because now we have a new priesthood (us) with a new High Priest, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:11-19 TPT.
Seeing the New Covenant in its fullness, the Scripture began to clear up for me, no matter what book of the Bible I read. All the contradictions were answered. I knew that God was not angry anymore.
How Do We Freely Teach Others What We Have Freely Received?
Now we have free access through Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:17, 18) within us to enter an intimate and pure relationship with God the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. Whereby, we grow in grace as His love flows to us, around us and within us; strengthening us to love others as freely as we receive His love.
Remember it’s by His righteousness bestowed upon us that we receive all the gifts and blessings of God – which equip us to minister reconciliation to whomever He leads us.
2 Corinthians 5:18, 19 NKJV
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
1 Peter 4:10-11 NKJV
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
So why would we not trust Him, just as freely, to give to others in need?
1 Corinthians 2:9-13 NKJV
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
No one can know the secrets, mysteries and deep things hidden in the mysteries of God, except the Spirit of God reveal them. But, He reveals these things to our spirits by His Spirit, joined as one with us (1 Corinthians 6:17). It’s amazing, but by receiving Christ, we have indeed received His Spirit so we can know the things He would freely give us.
I had many experiences with God before I received the revelation of the finished work of Christ and the New Covenant, which now made sense to me. I remember, as a new believer, reading material from a church which taught we were still under the law of the Sabbath and asking if we were in sin for not going to church on Saturdays. Holy Spirit started reminding me of Scriptures like Romans 14:5 and Colossians 2:16.
Can we see that God has provided so much for those who love Him? Father God and Holy Spirit working together know our hearts and release to us what we are ready for.
Once we receive these deep hidden things; we are to teach these things the way Holy Spirit teaches them to us. Freely.
Paul understood, by Holy Spirit revelation, the purpose of God revealing the mysteries to him, as He had done with the other apostles and prophets.
Ephesians 3:1, 2, 8 NKJV
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
In Finland, we were invited to teach at the Helsinki Logos Bible School. Using these verses, I taught that we were in Finland to teach because God had revealed this was our assignment. We received grace, that is, authority and power to teach to Finnish believers the things Holy Spirit revealed to us, just as Paul knew he had grace to teach the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to the Gentiles wherever God sent him. Interestingly, when Paul “assayed to go into Bythnia,” in NW Turkey, God forbid him. God’s assignment for Paul at that time was to preach the gospel in Macedonia.
Not All Receive What God Promises
John 3:16, 19 TPT
16 For this is how much God loved the world—he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.
18 the unbeliever already lives under condemnation because they do not believe in the name of God’s beloved Son. 19 And here is the basis for their judgment: The Light of God has now come into the world, but the hearts of people love their darkness more than the Light, because they want the darkness to conceal their evil.
Jesus tells us the truth about this. God offers salvation for all who choose to believe in Jesus. But people choose darkness because their eyes have been blinded.
Peter elaborates all that we receive freely in the precious gift of salvation through faith in Christ. The depth of this is simply declared in the promise to every child of God that we may be partakers of the divine nature.
2 Peter 1:3, 4 NKJV
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Every child of God needs to know that God has deposited within us everything we need for life and godliness. It was wonderfully lavished upon us through knowing Him. This is an ongoing relationship which deepens more and more as we spend intimate time with Him. We get to enjoy glorious manifestations of His goodness. These are tremendously powerful promises which each of us can experience and thereby, enter into living reality of partaking of His divine nature; which prepares us to then partner with His divine nature. The Greek word may be either.
2 Peter 1:4 TPT As a result of this, he has given you magnificent promises that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature, by which you have escaped the corrupt desires that are of the world.
2 Peter 1:4 HCSB By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature
What is His nature like? First, it is divine. It is Godly.
Second, it is content with what God desires for us, having escaped, through the deep knowledge of Christ, the corruptions of this world. We still live in this world, as Jesus lived in this world, without being controlled by it. Amazingly, through knowing Him; we get to experience not being controlled by the corrupt desires of this world.
Third through an untold number: The character of God’s nature is everywhere written in the Gospels and the letters of the Apostles. It was everywhere seen and experienced in the life of Christ and of those who knew Him. The qualities of God’s nature are, therefore, familiar to us. Peter wrote of the things that Paul and John wrote about as furnished to us as we received the Spirit of God within our spirits by inviting Jesus into our hearts. Peter talks about the “seed” and Paul reminds us that much of what we strive to emulate by effort, is actually fruit of that “seed;” an inward relationship, not with ourselves, but with the Holy Spirit within (John 14:15). It is He who reveals who we really are, in Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-10 TPT
So devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith with goodness,
and to goodness add understanding,
and to understanding add the strength of self-control,
and to self-control add patient endurance,
and to patient endurance add godliness,
and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters,
and to mercy toward others add unending love.
Since these virtues are already planted deep within, and you possess them in abundant supply, they will keep you from being inactive or fruitless in your pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ more intimately. But if anyone lacks these things, he is blind, constantly closing his eyes to the mysteries of our faith, and forgetting his innocence—for his past sins have been washed away.
For this reason, beloved ones, be eager to confirm and validate that God has invited you to salvation and claimed you as his own. If you do these things, you will never stumble. As a result, the kingdom’s gates will open wide to you as God choreographs your triumphant entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.
Notice the two things in verse 8.
- These virtues are already planted deep within, and you possess them in abundant supply.
- They will keep you from being inactive or fruitless in your pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ more intimately.
Verse 9 should be a jolt to wake us up to reality. What Jesus warns in Revelation 2:4, forgetting our first love and 3:16, becoming lukewarm in our faith and therefore, fruitless.
Peter, like Paul and John yearned for each child of God to so know Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit intimately, that they would never stumble in their faith. So they urged us to go deeper and deeper still, in the grace filled knowledge of our Lord and Savior and the perfect love of Father God and the abiding walk of communion with the Holy Spirit.
Everything we need for this walk of growing in grace and being perfected in the love of God is for the purpose of partaking of and partnering with the Divine nature of God. Why? We are to be His emissaries to the world, bringing His kingdom wherever we go. Thereby the free gifts God is offering the world through us are to be heard, seen and tasted of freely in every corner of the world. We become such clear examples of the love of God, shining lights of His grace and mercy, that it becomes obvious that every contrary message from the kingdom of darkness is obviously evil and intended for our destruction.
So contrary wise, let’s dig deep into the promise of the new nature through partaking of God’s Divine nature.
When we fellowship with Father God and Jesus we are partaking of Their Divine nature. For truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Anointed One. 1 John 1:3 TPT
When we commune with Holy Spirit we are partaking of His Divine nature. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV
Love is the core nature of the Trinity. So our fellowship with each One imparts Their Divine and perfectly loving nature to us. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23 NKJV
Each of us learns about the Divine nature of God in several different ways. We learn through the Word of God in Scripture. We learn as Holy Spirit leads us to witness to others in unexpected moments. And we learn through encounters and experiences with God in the secret place and in moments as He speaks to us, as it were, ‘out of the blue.’ Actually, it’s within our spirit that Holy Spirit reveals something we are ready to receive from Him.
I remember in Germany in the early 80’s, asking God His answer, why bad things happen to good people, especially things like child-abuse. The answer began to come, after years of waiting, expecting He would answer. It took a little while to fully unfold, though my awe of God’s goodness already seemed complete. But He has kept revealing more of His Divine nature. So, I get amazed over and over. I related His answer as I wrote a Bible School manual called, “God Is Good” for Finnish believer. It’s available on this website.
Therefore, freely receive the love of God through the risen Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Freely receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, making the gifts and callings we are intended to walk in active, powerful and fruitful as we pursue the deep relationship God is calling us into.
Everything is freely provided by God. Then we choose to grow in grace and the knowledge of God our Father, our Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit, our Teacher. It’s all available, for free. What are we choosing?
Other verses which speak of freely giving to us as part of the gospel of the kingdom:
John 10:17 TPT
Acts 5:32 TPT
2 Cor 2:10 TPT
Colossians 1:12 TPT
Hebrews 4:16 TPT
James 1:17 TPT
Revelation 21:6 NKJV
Revelation 22:17 NKJV & TPT