Let's Be Obedient

The Economy of the Tithe
Let's Be Obedient

It often seems like our finances are being shattered. Wall Street’s up and down from day to day, and you’re wondering what’s going on with your personal finances. I want you to know that when you’re securely locked into God’s kingdom you can say, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19) I once was young, now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25)

Cast thy bread on the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

The bread represents our finances, the water represents people. When you give the finances God has given to you into the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know not what evil shall be upon the earth. God wants to take care of us in those times of evil when we have simply sown into His kingdom. He takes the seeds we have given and blesses us back.

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
1 Timothy 6:17

God really wants us to enjoy our finances in this earth, but He also wants us to set our priorities and keep Him number one in our finances.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33

The tithe is the entry level into the simple financial plan of God. It’s not complicated. We want to make it complicated and difficult, but it’s simply a test of our obedience unto God. We know that when we sow seed, blessings start to come back into our life. So many Christians ask God for miracles week after week after week, and God is gracious and good and He will come through with a miracle, but God’s desire is for us to enter into His plan of sowing seed.

The children of Israel had forty years of miracles in the wilderness, but when they crossed over into Canaan the miracles stopped because God wanted to work with the seed of the land. This is how those people began to enter into God’s blessings so they would have it without scarceness. In the wilderness, miracles came every day but there was only enough for the one day. They had to trust Him again the next day. But it’s my desire, and I’m sure it’s yours, to enter into that place where seeds just keep on producing and keep on producing. That’s what happens when we sow our finances, the tithe, into the kingdom of God. He promises He will continue to watch over us and take care of us.

There are some guidelines for giving. God wants us to be obedient but there’s more than just obedience in giving. There’s something that backs it up. Obedience is not just the putting of the finances into the offering plate. Something happens before that.

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Luke 6:35-38

The Greek word for children is the word huios which means adult sons. We often forget that there are prerequisites for everything in life. How many know that when you want to get healed there are some prerequisites to the Word of God for being healed? Jesus talked about asking for forgiveness as the prerequisite for healing. There’s something about operating in forgiveness that causes the power of God to move in your life. There’s nothing like preaching and teaching on forgiveness to see the doors open up in people’s lives for divine healing. I’ve never seen it fail. When you minister on forgiveness and operating in forgiveness toward God and toward others, suddenly the power of God begins to move for healing.
James 5:16 tells us that if we’ll confess our faults one to another then we shall be healed. Before answered prayer can come, we’re told in Mark 11:25, when you stand praying, forgive so that your heavenly Father will forgive you of your trespasses also. We’re told in the prayer that Jesus gave us that we call the Lord’s Prayer to forgive us our sins, or our debts or trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass or sin against us. This is a prerequisite. And before you give an offering, Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that when you come and give your gift on the altar and there remember that if you have aught against your brother, go and make it right with your brother, then come back and give your gift. (See Matthew 5:23.) God wants our heart to be clean before Him for this is how He blesses us back in this lifetime.

It’s not just the placing of the finances in the offering that signifies obedience. I’ve heard people say, “I have given for years and God never seems to bless me back. How come others around me seem to be blessed?” Oftentimes this person is harboring guilt, unforgiveness, or bitterness toward other people and often even toward God. Let me go one step further. Many of you have never forgiven yourself for what you did years ago even though God has forgiven you. If you will not forgive yourself, you are saying that you are bigger than God. God can forgive you, but you can’t forgive yourself. You are setting yourself above God and that is blasphemy.

If God has forgiven you and cast your sins as far as the east is from the west, then you need to make up your mind to forgive yourself. Once you do, Hebrews 12:12 says to lift up the hands which hang down. Once you’ve been forgiven, quit standing there with your hands dragging the ground. Quit saying, “Oh, I was just so bad. How could God ever forgive me?” God says, “You are forgiven.” Lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees. Make straight paths for your feet. Get back in the race. Start running again lest that which is lame be turned out of the way and God have to go to somebody else.

I personally believe there are many people on the sidelines that God has forgiven but they just can’t forgive themselves. People have told me, “I think God is through with me. My life is over. He can never use me again.” I have my famous test. Put your hand over your heart. If it’s still beating, God is not through with you. He has a plan for your life, and if you live one more day, He has a plan for your life. If you live one more week, He has a plan for your life. My Bible tells me in Ephesians 5:16 that He can redeem the time. For all the mess you have made and all the wallowing around and the guilt you have had for years, He can turn that around if you’ll just get back with His plan. Forgive yourself. Get back in there.

Luke 6:35 says to love your enemies. Before we ever get down to verse 38, give and it shall be given unto you, He starts with this phrase, love your enemies. It is easy to love your friends and Christians around you who are friendly, but it is so difficult to love your enemies: those who have abused you or who have done you wrong. This verse doesn’t say you have to fellowship with them. It doesn’t say you have to go to dinner with them. But it does say you have to love them enough to pray for them, be concerned about them, lift them up before the Lord, ask God to work in their life. You know you love your enemies whenever you don’t wish ill on them. You really trust in God that they will get their life in order and get it turned around, but in the meantime you’re going to live for God.

This verse says to love your enemies. The Greek word there is agape; God’s own love toward them. It is the type of love God loved you with when you were His enemy. When you were a sinner, when you were lost and dead in your trespasses and sin and there was nothing in you to love, God chose to love you so much that He sent His own Son to die for you on the cross. That is the type of love we need to have toward our enemies.

In the previous verses He said if you only love your friends, how are you any better than the world? They can do that. Why have the New Birth? Why have the Holy Spirit in you if you’re no better than the world for they only love their friends? They hate their enemies, but you’re supposed to love your enemies, those that Jesus said that do spite against you or treat you wrongly. He also says in that verse of Scripture to do good. This means to produce good works. Not only does He want you to love your enemies, He wants you to produce good works, to give into those things that are necessary, to give into those things that are good, and to help your brothers and sisters around you so your life becomes a series of good works unto God. The purpose of the New Birth was to deliver us to a place in our life where we can produce good works.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

The reason God left us here was to witness. He left us here to lay hands on the sick and see them recover. He left us here to lead people into the infilling of the Holy Spirit, to bring them to church, and to help them out in their natural life. This is what He is saying in Luke 6:35 where He tells us to lend expecting nothing in return and your reward shall be great.

We often have grudges against others because we have lent them money and they haven’t given it back. We even have Christians taking other Christians to court because they will not give the money back or make the payments they said they would. But this verse of scripture says to lend it and if they don’t give it back, don’t expect it. Give it over to God because God will reward you even greater than what man could every repay you with. We have all had those times when we’ve lent money to somebody, especially to a Christian, who promised to give it back and we never see them again. They never answered the phone, they wouldn’t respond to us, and we’ve spent nights lying awake, rolling around in bed, and being agitated, irritated, and upset. Why let them affect your life like that? Give it to God. Let Him reward you back and this verse says great will be your reward. He says when you give; expect nothing from the one you gave it to. If they give it back, fine; but they don’t give it back, God will repay you and it will be great.

Once you give it to God, you have lent it to the Lord. God is good in paying us back. The Word of God tells us in the Book of Isaiah that he who gives to the poor lends to the Lord. The Word of God says the borrower is subject to the lender. So when you lend to God, He is the borrower and He is subject to you. I know that when God has a responsibility, He meets His responsibility. Hallelujah! So when someone lets you down or doesn’t repay you, say, “Lord, I’m giving that one to You. Oops! You owe me God. Hallelujah.” And He will come through. He will come through and great shall be your reward.

God said in Malachi 3:10 to test Him, prove Him, and see if He will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing more than you can contain. When He says, “Put me to the test,” He’s saying, “I’ll be subject to you.” What an incredible verse of scripture that God would bring Himself down to our level on that area and say, “Put me to the test.” No where in the Word of God do we find God saying to us, “Put me to the test,” like He does when it comes to finances because finances have such a grip on our life. He simply says instead of stewing over it, worrying over it, or worrying about people giving it back, give it to Me, says the Lord, I’ll be sure and give it back to you. Just like when you tithe, He says, “You do that and I’m under obligation to bring it back into your life many times over.”

And then finally He says at the end of this verse that you will be the sons of God. He’s simply indicating that giving does not make us a child of God, but it does indicate we have grown up. It indicates we have reached a point of maturity where we can trust the Lord when it comes to the areas of forgiveness, of lending to others, and of forgiving people for debts they do not repay to us, and we can roll it off on the Lord and say, “Lord, you handle it. You take care of it. I have other things in life to think about than who owes me money or who is obligated to me. I have souls to take care of. I have people to win for Jesus Christ. I have a church to serve. I have a choir to sing in. I have ushers to be with. I have Your duties and Your responsibilities to take care of, and Lord, I’m not going to roll around here in this bed worrying about it all night long. I’m giving it to You. I’m going to sleep. You take care of it.”

Luke 6:35 says to love your enemies, produce good, lend hoping for nothing or expecting nothing, and your reward shall be great, and you shall be called, in essence, the sons of the highest for He is kind unto the unthankful and unto the evil.

In Luke 6:36, He is telling us to become as our Father is. Where He says be merciful, the Greek actually says, become merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful. God is always merciful, but this verse asks us to become what God is and if there is anything that God wants us to see about His character is He is merciful. Jesus was moved with compassion on multitudes. We find in the Word of God that above everything else God is called love. God is not called faith; He is not called power. God is love and His essence of love comes to us in that God so loved the world that He gave. (See John 3:16.) This is why verse 36 tells us to become merciful as our heavenly Father also is merciful.

You know what this tells me about mercy in our life? It is a growing process. You can’t just pray for mercy and have it overnight. It’s something you start to walk in. It’s something you start to practice and mercy becomes a part of your life. The longer you live for Jesus, the more merciful you become, the more mercy you have. Have you found through the Christian life that you have become more merciful through the years? If not, what have you become through the years? This verse tells us we should become more merciful through the years.

I have found out that many of the things we ask God for we want instantly when in actuality it is something we’re supposed to develop in life. I’ve heard Christians say, “I just don’t have a love for the lost. I think I’m going to ask God to drop a love for the lost in my heart.” But I find that if you start to witness to the lost, you start to do the things you’re supposed to, you start to step out in faith even when you don’t have a desire to do it, and that love begins to grow. How many have found out that you didn’t have a whole lot of love for kids until you had one and that love began to grow through the years? I’ve heard people say, “You know I never really loved kids very much, but the moment I had one something was there and it began to grow through the years and grow through the years and grow through the years.”

The same thing is true with mercy. He tells us to become merciful even as our heavenly Father is merciful. So how do you become merciful? Start forgiving people. Instead of keeping a long list of all those people who owe you, forgive them. You may not have a physical list in your pocket, but you have a tape in your head that plays all the time. You see them and that tape runs by. That picture is there of the time they let you down and wouldn’t call you back and wouldn’t repay you the finances; and now whenever you see them, they run one way and you run the other. This verse is telling us to start practicing mercy. Forgive them. Just say, “Father, I forgive them and I’m putting this whole issue in your hands. I’m going on with life.” That forgiveness will start to mount up inside of you and you’ll find yourself forgiving other people, mercy starts to grow, and you’ll begin to find the heartbeat of your heavenly Father.

Luke 6:37 goes on to say, “Judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven.” This verse is telling us first what not to do and then what to do. The essence of verses 35 and 36 is operating in the area of forgiveness, but He tells us not to go the other direction a judge them and condemn them. Oftentimes, as Christians, instead of growing in love we grow in judgment and in condemnation. We start to look down on others. I call this: spiritual king of the mountain. You come to church and consider yourself better than others, and the only reason you help other people is so they’ll think you’re great. The reason you help them is so somehow after it’s all over they’ll see what a great person you really are. But this is not the essence of this verse. Jesus said if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, take on the role of a servant and wash their feet. The disciples were so amazed that Jesus would wash their feet when He said really if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, when you come into a feast take the lowest seat. Don’t look for the highest seat. Take the lowest seat because there’s no where to go but up. But when you take the highest seat, there’s no where to go but down. Therefore, He’s telling us that this is what greatness is in the kingdom of God.

Jesus came into this earth and became a servant. He came and became a servant unto all, laid aside His greatness, laid aside His reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, was made into the likeness of men. Then, being humbled and fashioned as a man, He went to the cross and died for us, and God highly exalted Him. (See Philippians 2:7-9.) When we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He will exalt us in due time. (See 1 Peter 5:6.)

Next of all, we’re not to condemn others, but we are to forgive them and by forgiving them we act in the mercy and love of God. Instead of condemning, we forgive. Instead of holding grudges, we ask God to forgive them and we see them cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, in verse 38, He says, give. Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom for with the same measure that you mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Before all the giving occurs in verse 38, God asks us to cleanse our heart. Now we can give and He promised it shall be given unto us.

Even though it comes through the hands of men, it still comes from God. Even though men place it in your hands, it comes from the ultimate source of God Himself.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
James 1:17

Our God is the One who blesses our life back and this verse is telling us that God gives
back to us. When we give to the Lord, we give through the hands of men; when God gives back to us, He gives through the hands of men. God doesn’t drop the money on our dresser during the nighttime. He can. He has done it before with manna. He produced it and dropped it to the children of Israel in the wilderness. He sent quail once and He can do it again, but He prefers not to. He prefers to work by the working of our hands. He prefers to work by the sowing and reaping process that as long as the earth remains, there will always be seedtime and harvest. God wants us to operate by seedtime and harvest. He wants us to bless people so He can turn around and bless us back. By giving unto people, we lend to the Lord. By giving to people, we give to God.

In Malachi 3:10 where God says, “You’ve robbed me,” we often think we go into heaven and rob God. That’s not how we rob God. When we don’t give into people’s lives, we rob Him, because He said if you do it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, you’ve done it unto to me. When you don’t visit these people in prison, you don’t visit me. When you do visit them, you visit Me; and when you do give to them, you give to Me. (See Matthew 25:36-44.) When you don’t give to them, you’ve robbed from Me.

When we give into people’s lives, God is under obligation to get it back into our lives and He promises in Luke 6 that when we do give, it shall be given unto us, first of all, good measure. Do you realize that God gives us back more than what we give to Him? That is what good measure means — back into our lives many times over. But not only does He give good measure, it goes on to say pressed down. I eat Raisin Bran in the morning, and I always like to read that part on the outside of the box and find out if it’s true. Contents may have settled during shipping and handling. I open it up and sure enough there’s a bunch of space at the top. I don’t understand why they don’t shake it up at the factory, fill it back up, and shake it a few more times and fill it up so by the time I get it it’s filled up to the top. But let me tell you what God does before He ever puts it back into your life. He shakes it, presses it down, shakes it again, presses it down, and fills it to the top to where it’s actually overflowing. I have never opened a Raisin Bran box and have it fly off the top….never, but that’s how God gives it back into our lives. That’s the way God loves to do it. We find He does it exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think! Malachi 3:10 goes on to say when they tithed to the Lord, He promised to open up the windows of heaven and pour out more of a blessing than they could contain.

Aren’t you glad He doesn’t just give us life, He gives us abundant life? Everything God does, He does excessively. He does it beyond what we can ever wildly imagine. It says He gives back to us more than we can ask or think. I can ask big things, but I can think things so big I am afraid to ask for them. He says He can do bigger than that. He can do bigger than you can ask. He can do bigger than you can think. He gives to us good measure — that fills it up to the top — but then He presses it down, shakes it up, and fills it up again. This time it flows over the top and then He gives it to me. This is what God does, how He blesses us back into our life, and then tells us how this all works. It works by the measure that you put out to others; He measures it back to us again.

Luke 6:38 tells us it all begins with how we measure or mete it out to others that He gives it back to us because by giving to each other, by giving to missions, by giving to evangelists, by giving of our tithes, by giving to a children’s building, by giving to a youth building, we are meting it out to others and with that same love, with that same attitude we put behind it He pours it back into our life many times over. As one famous minister said one time, “I shovel it out to God. He shovels it back to me and His shovel is always bigger.”

I quote this over the offering: give and it shall be given unto you good measure, pressed down, but there are a lot of prerequisites before we give. What are we supposed to do? Love your enemies, do good, lend, be merciful, judge not, condemn not, forgive, give, and then it shall be given unto you. All those things tell us how God desires us to be givers into His kingdom, and then He gives it back into our life again many times over.

This is the close of the Economy of the Tithe series and we have to remember that none of these things are attached to the world’s economy. God never supplies according to Wall Street, but according to His riches in glory. God never supplies according to the lending rate. Never in heaven will God tell us, “You know, it used to be pretty good up here, but we have fallen on some hard financial times.” God promises to supply all of our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (See Philippians 4:19.) Those riches are not up there for the world. They’re up there to supply for us. The world depends on the world, but believers should be depending on His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Hebrews Chapter 7, look with me at verse 5…Hebrews Chapter 7, verse 5. Here’s about our tithe. Often times people say, “Yes, but is tithing actually New Testament?” The answer is ‘yes’.

And verily they that are the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:

But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
Hebrews 7:5-6

Notice that under the law they had a commandment to take tithes. I will never take an offering. We’re not under the Law any more. Verse 6 is talking about Melchizedek receiving the tithe of Abraham. Before the Law was ever given, a priest who represented Jesus Christ met Abraham one day and instead of taking tithes, received tithes. There is a big difference in taking tithes and receiving tithes. When I receive tithes, you voluntarily give them. That’s what God wants. As a man purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. (See 2 Corinthians 9:7.) He goes by the attitude of your heart. Cheerfulness comes because you’re forgiven. Cheerfulness comes because you lend not expecting anything back. Cheerfulness comes because you don’t condemn or judge, but you love others and forgive them.

All of that comes into this where it says He received tithes. We must keep in mind that Melchizedek came long before the sons of Levi, and received tithes of Abraham and blessed him and that had the promises.

And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.

And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
Hebrews 7:7-8

Without all contradiction or all argument the less, that is Abraham, is blessed of the better, that is Melchizedek. In verse 8, the word here means here and now. Notice in the Old Testament before the Law was given, Melchizedek received tithes. Under the Law they took tithes and today we receive tithes. We’re no longer under the Law! Our precedent for giving and tithing never goes back to Moses or to the Law. It was a law that was given, a mandate that was put upon people, but before the law was ever given, tithes already existed. The day we are compared to in the tithes we give is Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek and Melchizedek blessing Abraham saying, “Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God! God who possesses heaven and earth and blessed be the Lord that has given your enemies into your hand!” Abraham freely gave tithes of all. (See Genesis 14:18-20.)

When you honor and praise God for all He has done and who He is, your heart is so filled with gratitude you desire to give into His kingdom, and that’s what God wants to use. More than the money you give, He wants the attitude of love behind it, the attitude of love toward God, love toward people, and love toward the work of the kingdom of God. Do you believe that God loves to prosper his people?

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
Psalm 35:27

He delights in the prosperity of His servants — those who favor His righteous cause. His righteous cause is people. His righteous cause is souls. His righteous cause is witnessing. His righteous cause is missions. His righteous cause is discipleship. When the work of the kingdom of God becomes your love, and when your passion is to win souls in this earth and establish seed that will never, ever go away, God says, “I want to work with that person. I delight in prospering that person.” He delights in prospering us because He trusts us with his riches. He knows we don’t look at uncertain riches and put our trust there; our trust is in the living God.

It says in Hebrews 7:8, that here men that die receive tithes; but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that He ever lived. He is saying that when we give to people, God gives back through people. You may give your tithes and offerings to the local church, but you’re really giving to the Lord. When God gives back to you, He gives to you through the hands of men, but it’s still coming from the Lord. You can’t give your tithes to the church and say the pastor is going to make you prosperous because he won’t. He can’t! But when you give to the church and see God above the pastor, you see it is Jesus you are truly giving your tithes to, and all good things come from Him. All riches come from Him. Therefore, even when Abram gave tithes to Melchizedek, Melchizedek didn’t make him rich. It was the Lord that Melchizedek stood for, the One he was there for. As the seed of Abraham we receive tithes in this earth and we find that grace is better than the Law. We are under the Dispensation of Grace. Grace is greater than Law, but Grace existed before the Law came along and Grace exists today after the Law is gone.

The beauty of it is if grace is greater than the Law, then love is greater than fear. I don’t want you tithing out of fear. I want you tithing out of love to the Lord. I don’t want you tithing for fear that somehow a big baseball bat is going to come out of heaven and beat you up if you don’t tithe. I don’t want you in here gasping for air saying, “I got to give or I won’t make it tomorrow.” I want you to give because you love the Lord. Therefore, love is greater than fear.

Next of all, the Holy Spirit is greater than the flesh. I want you giving because the Holy Spirit inspires you to give and has blessed your life so much, rather than your flesh giving.

Next of all, desire is greater than obligation. God wants us to give because we desire to give not because we’re under an obligation to give.

Why has God appointed the tithe? The question often comes around, “Why did God say ten percent?“ First, tithing is a means of testing our obedience to God. The ten percent is simply means. He put something out and said, “Will you do that?” We find people still wrestling with it and arguing about it today, but it’s simply a means of testing our obedience to God. Secondly, tithing is a guard against covetousness. I have found when people are faithful in their tithing; they don’t seem to be wrapped up in covetousness. However, I find covetous people have a hard time turning loose of anything, much less ten percent. They’re the ones who would gripe if it was two percent. It is the fact of having to turn loose of something that has such a hold on their life. We find so many commandments in the Word of God against covetousness. Thou shalt not covet. (See Exodus 20:17.) We’re told to beware of covetousness in Luke 12:15. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:3, let not covetousness be once named among you.

We overcome those areas of our flesh by simple obedience to God. Doing what God has asked us to do helps us to turn loose of the flesh in our life and helps us be more controlled by the Holy Spirit. Tithing is a means of testing God’s obedience to His own Word. It’s a means of us testing God’s obedience to His own Word, because tithing has promises attached to it that once we do our part, God is obligated and we can stand back and wait for God to do His part.

God never gives us the hard part. He has the hard part and He gives us the easy part. Bible says lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Notice that it is not up to you to get them to recover; it’s just up to you to lay hands on them. Once I do my part; God has to do His part. Somehow, we lay hands on them and we have this fear come on: what if they don’t get healed? That’s not your responsibility! Your responsibility is to lay hands on them. God has to come through and heal them. If you lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.

In addition to testing God’s Word, tithing is also a way God has chosen to fund the work of the Church. It is us helping God with the work of the church and funding it.

Finally, the last thing is the means of God’s temporal blessing entering into our life.

Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Psalm 78:19

When Israel questioned God, the answer was “yes.” There are times when the earth doesn’t look like a wilderness because there is plenty. We came through a great economic boom in the 80s and 90s and the first part of 2000. Then, all of a sudden, things changed drastically and now there doesn’t seem to be plenty and the earth is looking more and more like the wilderness. The question still remains, “Can God provide a table in the wilderness?” Yes, He can, and guess who’s going to eat at it? Us! Hallelujah!

Bob Yandian

If you like this article, check out The Economy of the Tithe and his book, Unlimited Partnership: God and the Businessman, at the BYM Store.