In all probability, you have heard pastors using a variant of this passage to urge you to give. They say that since your gift will make room for you, you should give to them. Their claim is that as you give, you have room for growth.
Are they right or are they handling the word of truth deceitfully? We intend to sort it all out to your advantage in this post.
Your Giving Or Your Gift Will Make Room For You?
The verse in question is found in Proverbs 18:16. In the King James Version (KJV), it says A man’s gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men. However, by the time you get down to the New Living Translation (NLT), it reads differently. Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people! Which is it?
Evidently, prosperity preachers – and I have nothing against prosperity – are glad to borrow from the NLT. Please note. We are not here knocking any version, simply helping you discover God’s truth
Please pay particular attention here if you are inclined to blame God for failures. You accuse Him of not being faithful to His word. You faithfully give to the church, expecting returns. But the mantra “your gift will make room for you” is not working in your own case. Rather, it is making room for your pastor and bringing him before great men.
Does the fault belong to God who said that your gift will make room for you? Or is the fault with hireling preachers who deceitfully use the word of truth? If it is God’s fault, blame God but if it is your pastor’s fault, please do not blame God.
Is the bible referring to what you give or to what God gives you? To help us resolve this, we look at bible accounts of people who obtained room. They also stood before great men. It is important that we do this.
Because if you discover that it is your talents which make room for you, you will no longer blame God. You will rather blame those who mislead you – God’s messengers.
Joseph’s Results From “Your Gift Will Make Room For You”
When the bible says that your gift will make room for you, could it be referring to talents and skills? These are gifts which God bestows on us to enhance our lives.
Take Joseph as an example. We do not read anywhere that he gave gifts to anyone. Therefore, the fact that he got room to prosper must be due to a different type of gift. Joseph, as you may recall, was gifted by God with the interpretation of dreams.
When he dreamt, he knew its interpretation. In the same way, when others dreamt, he knew its interpretation. And Joseph was not ashamed to employ this gift that God had given him.
He was eager to deploy it – in the service of the butler and also for the baker. Joseph readily interpreted their dreams. This account has two very important lessons for us. Between God giving you a gift or a talent and your profit from it, there is service. Indiscriminate service.
Did Jesus not say that He is among us as one who serves? Like Him, we engage in service to mankind, regardless of their station in life. Regardless of gender, race or whatever.
The second lesson we see in this account is that results are not immediate. Poor Joseph, he expected quick profit from the deployment of his gift. It did not happen until a long while later.
Later, much later, he realized God’s promise that “your gift will make room for you.” Not only that, it will bring him before great men. In one fell swoop, Joseph went from prisoner to parliamentarian. He was in the presence of the greatest man in the world at that time.
The Talented Servants Also Enjoyed Your Gift Will Make Room For You
In a similar account, we see three servants of a King. Before the king left on a long journey, he called his servants to himself. To one he gave five talents; to the other, he gave two talents and to the third, he gave one talent.
No doubt, you are familiar with the story. All the same, it is important to refresh. Particularly because it makes the point we observed above, with Joseph. Which is that the path between your gift and your success goes through the valley of service.
You see, the two servants who understood that concept gained a lot more. The one servant who missed that memo suffered loss. The King ordered that his single talent should be taken from him and given to another. The most industrious servant got even more.
Great and needful as that lesson is, however, let us not lose sight of our main thesis. It is clear what the bible means when it says that your gift will make room for you. It is talking about your talent.
The poor and severely bastardized verse is referring to the gift with which God endows you. It has nothing to do with gifts that you give to your pastor or church. Which is not to say that there are no other verses in the bible that encourage us to give. There are.
One of such verses says, “give and it shall be given unto you.” another one talks of “To give is more blessed than to receive.” But the verse in Proverbs18:16 that talks about making room for you is just not one of them.
My People Perish For Lack of Knowledge
Up until now, you had thought that God was failing you. You might have been languishing in pain and sorrow. In other words, you were perishing. The bible says that God’s people perish for lack of knowledge.
Gauge Your Attitude Towards God
But now that you know the meaning of the verse, you can stop wagging your finger in God’s face. What we do in this blog is to share the knowledge of the word of God. We can afford to share it exactly as it is, since we are not in it for profit.
Our sole purpose is to help prepare a people who are ready for the Rapture. Unfortunately, the pastor with bills to pay will deceitfully use the word of truth. Those are not words which we made up, by the way. They are in the bible and you can look it up in 2 Corinthians 4:2.
Arm yourself with the real knowledge of God’s word. Because that is the only way we shall not perish, both now and in eternity. Knowledge is the antidote against perishing.
Maranatha!
