Tithing & Giving The Beautiful Truth

What a blessing it has been to me during the 43 years of my ministry to be faithful in giving tithes and offerings. I have lived from those who tithe and give, and I have been faithful to tithe and give, also. About fifteen years ago, the Lord moved my heart to go beyond giving what had been an approximate 20%. I began to give 40 to 50% from a very conservative salary. The blessings of God immediately increased supernaturally. They have never ceased. I’m not talking about naming and claiming great wealth that is based on divination and sorcery. It is stealing from someone else by using evil powers to get what is not yours.

The blessings of tithing and giving are the pure Biblical ways of allowing our God to multiply our lives. The blessings from God are not taken from someone else. They are a multiplication of what we have rightfully earned. This is the Biblical difference between those that preach a "gospel of greed" and those that preach the "blessings of giving." Often, when someone learns the deception in this "name it, claim it" movement, they move back to the other extreme and quit tithing and giving as they should. That’s a sad way to respond to error.

Someone may ask, "Does the New Testament teach tithing and giving?" The answer is simple; the Bible is an integrated whole. First Testament (OT) truth is clearly truth for the "born again," unless it was a written change in the Second Testament (NT). Jesus made this plain over and over in His ministry. Listen to Jesus put the First Testament into the context of His ministry, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil (complete or perfect). For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20).

Not even one jot or tittle could be changed unless it was in His ministry of "completing." What did he complete? He completed the sacrifice and the rituals that go with them. He, also, fulfilled the first four feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Feast of Weeks). These feasts have no more significance except in their fulfilled interpretation. The last three feasts will be fulfilled in the end time events of the Rapture, the Tribulation period, and the thousand-year reign of His saints. The church is not supposed to celebrate these three feasts, but expect their fulfillment by His return. The original expression of these three feasts is meaningful only in a Jewish context by those who do not believe on the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. Every other commandment in Scripture is God’s present commandment.

No wonder Jesus said, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:4). The only commandment and Scripture the early church had was the First Testament. The only Bible that Jesus, His disciples, and the early church had to preach from was the Old Testament. They quoted it hundreds of times. No wonder Jesus said, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20). My friend, Jesus said that about the Pharisees and they paid tithes of every possession and blessing they received.

You are the loser, both now and forever, if you have left off tithing and giving to the Kingdom of God. Malachi spoke by the Holy Ghost the following wonderful words, "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 3:7-12).

I delight in the laws of God. They are never grievous to a Spirit-filled believer who walks in the light shining from above.