After returning from my second trip to Latvia to visit my good friend Rick Renner and ministering in the Bible school during the mornings and in the church in Riga in the evenings, seeing the people in their newly established church was one of the most life-changing experiences I have ever encountered.

During my first trip, a short year and a half previous, Rick had invited me to minister in a large crusade in Riga. In a large convention hall we witnessed the beginning of the church which was later formed.

The people of Riga were loving and open to the Gospel, but they were some of the poorest people I had seen anywhere in the world. The years of communism had literally left them with only the clothes on their backs.

Rick's ministry staff told me the people had only one set of clothes and not enough money to buy food. Their poverty was incredible, but the love in their hearts could not be extinguished.

Since they could not bring money for offerings, they brought what they could — flowers. Every night of the crusade the people brought armloads of flowers and laid them at our feet. They expected us to take them home with us, so each evening we left the convention hall carrying hundreds of flowers.

A Congregation Speaks to Me

What a change I saw a year and a half later!

The people in the church were wearing nice clothes and gave money in the offerings. In fact, offerings took so long to receive, the praise and worship leaders sang their songs through twice to allow all the people to come forward to give.

The people were lifting their hands, dancing, and running around the auditorium. They were filled with more joy than many Christians in the United States. I asked Rick how much money came in during each service. He told me more than $2,000. The equivalent in our church might as well be two million!

Rick had asked me to speak on tithing at the church in Riga, but I had no leading from the Lord to do so. Instead, these people taught me a new lesson. I saw the result of simple obedience to give to the Lord in faith what they had. God brought prosperity to a group of people given up by the rest of the world!

When I got on the plane to come home, the Holy Spirit began to pour out a series of sermons on tithing as seen from a totally different perspective.

For years, I had assumed the resistance people had to tithing was rebellion, but now I saw an enemy I had overlooked — fear.

This lesson is the first in a six-part series I taught at our church after I arrived home. I was deeply changed by what the Holy Spirit taught me through my second visit to Riga, and when I passed this teaching on to our congregation, their lives were also greatly altered.

Conquering Jericho

In Joshua 6:1-20, the defeat at Jericho by Israel is described. Jericho was the key city for the Israelites to begin taking the promised land of Canaan. There was no other way into Canaan except through this city. Jericho could not be bypassed, gone around, or forgotten. It had to be conquered.

The problem was Jericho stood as a monument to forty years of fear for this generation of Israelites. One year after coming out of Egypt, they sent twelve spies into Canaan from the border city of Kadesh-barnea.

Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, returned with the good report that this was a land filled with abundance and the confidence that God would give it into their hands. The other ten reported every evil that could be found in Jericho: Giants, thick walls, and massive, well­trained armies were especially concentrated in this border city.

For the following reasons, all of Israel's fears about their ability to take Canaan would be destroyed when the city of Jericho fell:

1. Jericho was a gateway city. It was the doorway into Canaan as well as a doorway out of the wilderness. I want you to see exactly what that represents to us in our Christian life. I have heard the wilderness described as "the land of lack" when used as an analogy for the Christian walk. This is not true! Egypt was the land of lack, and Satan ruled over it. Once we are born again (coming through the Red Sea on dry land is a type of salvation), God never brings us into a land of lack!

The wilderness is "the land of just enough." It is the place where God supplies all our needs, where He gave manna to the children of Israel; but He only gave enough for each day. When the people tried to collect more, it spoiled.

God wanted to lead them into a land of abundance, which was Canaan. He described the new land as a place where the Israelites would eat "bread without scarceness" and "not lack anything in it." (Deuteronomy 8:9)

How to Leave "The Land of Lack"

Would you like to move out of "the land of just enough?" Would you like to leave a daily life of hand-to-mouth, paycheck-to-paycheck existence where only your needs were supplied? Would you like to move into "the land of abundance?" Then Jericho must be conquered!

2. Taking Jericho required preparation. Before they took the city, God commanded the men of Israel who had not been circumcised in the wilderness to be circumcised (Joshua 5:2). This act represented the judgment and removal of the flesh, which would hinder the blessings the families would receive.

In moving into prosperity — the land of abundance — we must first judge the flesh, which would desire to use all of the blessings selfishly. Therefore, our first priority in moving into greater blessings is to use our money for the Gospel. God's kingdom must remain our highest priority. (See Deuteronomy 8:18 and Matthew 6:33.)

After the flesh was dealt with, God directed Joshua to have the people march around the city of Jericho every day for six days in complete silence. Each day, they confronted their fear and excuses as they faced the city walls and then returned to their camp where they meditated on God's promise that the city would be theirs. Every day for six days they met their fears and excuses with God's Word.

On the seventh day, fear was gone. At God's command, they marched around Jericho seven times and then shouted in faith. They saw God perform a miracle as the walls crashed to the ground in front of them! The land of abundance now lay before them!

God had said the land already belonged to them, and everywhere they placed their feet was theirs by inheritance. The Canaanites were trespassers on the land given to Israel by God. Although the land was already given to them, Israel had to possess it and drive out the inhabitants. Their feet had to step out on God's promises.

Like Israel, abundance is already ours, but we must deal with our fears and excuses, step out in faith, and watch our walls fall. Then we can leave the wilderness of "just enough" and watch God begin to meet the desires of our hearts beyond our wildest dreams!

3. Jericho belonged to the Lord. In Joshua 6:19, God told the children of Israel that Jericho belonged to Him, and all the possessions in the city belonged in the treasury of the Lord.

After Jericho, all the possessions of the other cities they conquered could be taken by the people, but Jericho was the first fruits of the land of Canaan, and its spoils belonged to the Lord. The people would give the riches and wealth of Jericho to the Lord as an act of worship and gratitude to Him.

What is Jericho?

Jericho represents the tithe, the firstfruits of all our financial increase. God tells us, "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine" (Proverbs 3:9,10). The tithe, the firstfruits, is the gateway out of the land of "just enough" and the gateway into "the land of abundance."

The fear of the tithe must be conquered. We cannot go around the tithe or ignore it because we cannot enter the land of abundance any other way.

However, two of the tribes of Israel decided not to go into the land, because it seemed much more comfortable on the wilderness side of Jordan. How sad that, in the same way, many Christians today are accepting and settling for far less than God has for them by not tithing.

The tithe, like Jericho, is our test. It is our place to really come to grips with our flesh, our fears, and our excuses in the light of God's promises. Do we believe Him or not? Many have passed over and are calling back to us, "Come on in! The land of abundance is wonderful!" What God has done for others is also true for you. He is no respecter of persons.

How long will you stand at Jordan and look across? How long will you halt between two opinions? I encourage you to conquer Jericho by giving the firstfruits of your income to the Lord, joining many others who are already prospering in the land of abundance!

Bob Yandian

If you like this article, check out Entering the Land of Abundance and his book, From Just Enough to Overflowing, at the BYM Store.

Copyright 2009 by Bob Yandian Ministries.
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