The Tithe

Recently, my sister brought to my attention a message by the pastor of a church she has been attending. Although the pastor's message was not regarding the tithe, he spoke of a time when the financial offering to his fellowship was strong due to "good times" or times when those who attended the fellowship brought much in the way of financial gifts. When the worldwide financial correction came, by his insinuation, many pulled back their giving. His is not the only church affected by the financial correction.

Firstly, I do not know how many in his church were bringing the tithe- those who do and have revelation of it are usually hard to move off it. Many in churches today bring "what they think is best" based upon their evaluation of their financial situation (before the financial contraction, less than 20% of those attending church in America actually brought in 10% of their gross income). Those who are not obeying God's command to tithe and rather give gifts (less than 10%) are likely to bring less for fear of not maintaining their financial standing, again, based upon their evaluation. The difference is a selfless determination to obey "no matter what" based upon a revelation of God in the matter and an uninspired understanding leading to "what seems right to me". Inspiration based upon revelation is the key. Although the tithe from your resources to God (Hebrews 7:8 reads: "Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.") by necessity is financial, His approach to the tither is not primarily sustenance (or something you can spend on needs or otherwise).

Malachi 3:10 reads "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house (spiritual and material food which is your act of obedience in the conditional bargain) and try (or prove) Me now in this says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it" (have you ever received a financial blessing that you did not have room for? I thought so. But Spirit to soul blessings almost have to be shared- we in ourselves don't have room enough to receive them, we glow with and speak about the truth that we have received about Jesus Christ whom we are to follow. That is how the gospel is preached! Good ground receives from God and produces more!) So you see the blessing to us in this context is not financial/sustenance but revelation to experience the fullness of who He is! But wait, it is not only spiritual to soulish blessing. The Lord is not done speaking.

Malachi 3:11 reads "and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field (clearly the context is financial/sustenance- what did they do with the fruit of the ground/vine? They ate or sold it!) and all nations will call you blessed for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of Hosts."

In order to walk just as Jesus walked we must understand things like Jesus understands them. You see, Jesus was a giver. His nature was to help the human creation become what He had thought at the beginning. He inspires us to become givers by commanding the tithe from our resources- honestly, what means alot to us - our stuff. When we obey He begins to provide to us the revelation needed to experience the fullness of who He is - to become complete in Him!

The commanded tithe will eventually bring us to a giving nature. We will get to a place where we are willing to give as He purposes. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. This process yanks that root out of our heart.