Let me start by being straight forward and blunt with you. I am not about to ask you for money or ask you to give to our ministry. I am not going to try to coerce you into tithing to Fireside Grace. That is not the purpose of this blog. This blog is to help Christians to understand the importance of tithing and to dispel the Myth that Jesus never said that you need to tithe, therefore, the tithe has been done away with.
The Myth: The Tithe has been done away with because Jesus never said you had to tithe. False!
I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Kevin Zadai showed me this scripture in his teaching on supernatural finances (please watch that series, It's free on YouTube). Let's take a look at a scripture that is so commonly overlooked by the church today and especially by those that don't believe that tithing is necessary. Here is what Jesus said in Luke 11:42, " “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." This is a verse that you can read in many different translations and it leaves out the part that says you should tithe. This is why I went into the Greek on these verses.
Let's take a look at the Greek, shall we? What is being said is, 'Woe to you the Pharisees, for you pay tithes of the mint and the rue and every herb; and you pass by the justice and the love of our God. These things also it behooves you to do and not to neglect those things." The word behooves stands out to me the most. It is not that common in our everyday language anymore. to Behoove means to do as a duty, an obligation, or to be required of. The Greek word that is translated as behooves is edei. This word means what is necessary, what is proper, what is inevitable, what is absolutely necessary.
Now that we have dispelled that myth, let's dispel another one that has floating around for a while that way we can fully embrace the importance of tithing and the supernatural benefits that it gives us.
Myth: Not all God's promises to the Jews are for the gentiles.
There is a gaping hole in this theology that I’d like to expound on and talk about a little. Are all of God’s promises to Israel for us? The simple answer is, yes. Here’s the scripture to support it. Galatians 3:6-11. “So also, Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith." Since we are of the faith, verse 7 tells us we are children of Abraham. The Children of Abraham are the ones to whom all the promises were made in the Old Testament.
The Pharisees very adamantly proclaimed this to Jesus in John 8:39, “Abraham is our father," they answered. "If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do what Abraham did.” Then you see here that Jesus is saying if you are children of Abraham, then do what he did. Well, Abraham tithed to a king who was like Jesus (just putting that out there). Back to Galatians 3, I’d like to point out that Paul says all who rely on works of the law are under the curse of the law. If all the curses of the law are for us then why wouldn’t the blessings be for us? I’d also like to say that those moments where we are thinking we are cursed or something is happening to us because we did something against the law is evidence of relying on works rather than faith. You get sick, or your finances are attacked and you’re thinking you’re under a curse as the result of your actions somehow and you allow those devils to keep attacking you and justify it within yourself by works... under the law. Since we are children of Abraham, then all the promises apply to us. And Paul tells the Corinthians in 2: Cor 1:20 “20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so, through him, the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
If we were to establish that the authors of the Bible were only speaking to the Corinthians then we have no reason to have communion. If Jesus were only sent to the Jews for the Jews, then we’d have no business being saved. Peter had that same mindset in Acts 10 and God had to set him straight by telling him to "call nothing I have made clean unclean." That opened up Peter’s eyes to the fact that the Gospel was being given to the gentiles as well as the Jews when the servants of Cornelius, a gentile, arrived at his doorstep. The law was originally given to men through angels. It says in Galatians 3:19 “The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.” How cool right? We’re like, why are all their laws so similar in the ancient times? Angels were sent to bring law and order to people. This explains why Abraham knew to tithe to Melchizedek (whom I suspect may well have been an angel sent to give the law). He was given the spiritual law already. Paul sums up all of this so well at the end of Galatians 3: “26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” I don’t know about you, but I want all of those promises
Now that we have established that we are heirs to all the promises of God that he made to the Israelite people, let's look at the most common tithing scripture out there, Malachi 3:10-11, " Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe," says the LORD Almighty."
This verse is missing some effect in the English translation. The first thing I'd like to point out is that this is a verse that is pertaining to warfare. Tithing is a form of spiritual warfare. How do I know this you ask? God calls himself the lord of Heaven's armies. This is his way of identifying that this is warfare and by tithing, you are allowing him to loose himself and ministering spirits of the armies of God to battle on your behalf.
Next, let's talk about the storehouse. Some may say that the storehouse is referring to the barn where the priests stored their food. In a very literal sense that is correct. The tithe was paid to the priests so that they would have food to eat. Well, according to 1 Peter 2:9, " 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
That covers two parts of the myth. Now let's talk about the benefits of tithing. This blew me away when I first read it. God will open the windows of Heaven. The word there actually means the floodgates. This is referring to a type of dam that is put in place in order to control the flow of water. You see it most commonly when you look at a canal lock. It controls the height and depth of the water, how much goes in and how much goes out. He not only opens that blessing gate but he also says he will pour out so much that you can't contain it all in your storehouse (which today is your bank, your food pantry, your vehicles your everything).
Ok, that's not the part the blew me away yet. But here is that part. It's actually coming from verse 11. The first thing I notice is that he says he will rebuke the Devourer. This is a type of demonic spirit it is the devouring spirit which has a name of a lower-case g, god. Its class is Ba (Hebrew for coming) awkal (meaning to eat or devour). It is a spirit that is sent to devour all the blessing that God has for you. It is not an angel of God, it is an angel of Satan that meets the requirement of Satan's description according to Jesus, steal, kill, and destroy.
Next, you see that God says (if you look in the Hebrew) that he (baokel) will not destroy the fruit of your land, nor shall you fail to bear fruit. This word for fail to bear fruit is tesakal. This word literally translates in English to means to be deprived of a loved one through a profound absence, especially due to the loved one's death; to take away through violence. Jesus says in John 15:1 that he is the true fine and his father is the Gardener. This shows us that there are other types of vines and lets us know that not only is God saying that your vineyard will produce fruit, but that he will not allow the enemy to take away your children or your fruit.
Tithing doesn't just protect your income and your blessing; it protects your children from being attacked by the enemy of God.
What I love the most about this scripture is that it is showing us that this particular warfare is not ours to fight. The only thing we have to do is tithe and then God does the rest. Twice he says he is the Lord of Warfare (hosts- Yahweh Tsaba). He wants you, the royal priesthood, to know that if you tithe then he will go to war for you. This is the only verse in the Bible where God says to Test him. That's a challenge from God. The very word he uses for test me is ubehanuni. It means to examine, to prove for yourself, to tempt, to try, to test like you are testing the strength and quality of metal. Basically, this is God's way of saying, "Come at me, Bro!"
Go ahead, test God in this. He permitted you to test him only in this area. Why not do it? Try to out-give God. Are you seeing a loss in your life? Your finances are being attacked? Your house is being destroyed? Your medical bills are piling up? You are going into debt in any way and you can't afford to tithe? Give anyway! God has made a promise to you that he will pour out his blessings on you. You can count on it! If you want to see more blessing then just give more. Jesus says that the measure with you give is the measure with which he will repay you. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." -Luke 6:38. May this message be a great beginning of truly amazing testimonies of how great a giver God is in your life.
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