"While teaching in Africa, the Lord gave me a picture depicting the management of financial resource. I saw a huge snowfield in the mountains with a virtually infinite supply of water. There were three rivers emanating from this snowfield. On the first river, lives a man whose experience of life is such that he never quite had enough water. Life experience has confirmed that to him. So, what does he do with the water coming down the river?
He builds a dam in the river, and collects all the water that he possibly can. No water is ever able to flow downstream for others to use. This man's view of water only includes that which is available to him in his lake. Therefore, he must conserve water, and he must be very careful because there is never enough coming down for him.
If the flow of water is ever increased in his river, he will simply store it and increase the size of his lake. His perception is that the bigger lake he has, the more secure he is for the future.
A second river also flows down from the snowfield. The man who lives along this river has life experience that tells him there is usually plenty of water to meet his needs, so there is no need to build a dam in the river. However, there is no need to build a dam in the river. However, there is never quite enough water to really meet all of his desires for water usage.
Thus, he uses all the water he can and lets a very small amount flow downstream for others to use. However, most of the water coming down the river is consumed by his ever-expanding needs/desires, so not much is left to flow downstream. This man's view of water is that there is more water available upstream, but its volume and rate of flow is quite limited. Therefore, he uses all he can as it flows down through his property.
If the flow of water is increased in this river, this family will inevitably find new uses for water. This man will build a swimming pool for his children. If water flow still increases, he will build a water park and install a series of beautiful fountains on his property. No matter how much water comes down the river, there is never quite enough for him to really do everything he would like to do with water.
Finally, there is the third river and a man who lives along this river.
His experience of life is that there so much water up there in that snowfield that no one could ever use all the water coming down the river.
Because of his understanding, this man begins digging canals to outlying areas to help water the fields of others who do not live near a river.
He empties as much as he can out through the canals he has dug and there still seems to be more water flowing down the river than he can possibly use, so most of it still flows downstream for others to use.
Each year this man digs a few new canals out to his neighbors, who need water.
In the next year, he has a plan for another three canals.
Then the following year, he is hoping to dig five new canals that can go out even further from this river.
It seems like no matter how many canals he digs, there is just more water that keeps coming down the river.
In fact, this man is thinking all the time about how he can hire some more men with more bulldozers to help dig canals faster to get water out to all the other farms that are far from the river. This man's experience of life is that he just cannot use up all that water coming down the river.
If the flow of water is increased in this river, the man living along this river will simply dig more canals to get more and more water out to help others.
On which river do you live?
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Posted By: Esther Pinkston
Thursday, February 18th 2010 at 12:50AM
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