TITHING - THE CONCEPT OF TITHING

A tithe is a portion (10%) of your income given as an offering to your local church. (Fun fact: The word tithe literally means tenth in Hebrew.) Because the custom of tithing is biblical, many Christians and Jews practice it as part of their faith.

Leviticus 27:30 (TLB) says, “A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, is the Lord’s, and is holy.” And Proverbs 3:9 (NIV) says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.”

………In the Old Testament, you had to do that; you had to follow the commandments to be blessed. Now, in the New Testament, He’s not asking you to follow these commandments to be blessed, but the point is that God’s Word is a blessing to you. In other words, part of your inheritance in Christ is the very Word of God, His instructions. It says in the Bible that His instructions are righteous. That’s so important. The very fact that God tells you to do something is a blessing in itself.

RELEVANCE OF TITHING

So, part of the blessing that you have in Christ is that you are asked to do anything, so it is part of the blessing, and so giving is not the reason for your blessing, but it is the result of your blessing. Secondly, you have to understand that there is a law of sowing and reaping, and in the New Testament it is further emphasized, saying “…whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” [Galatians 6:7], “…He that soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; He that soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully.” [2 Corinthians 9:6].

In other words, it is a law of the Spirit. So, your giving is a form of sowing, like a farmer who is blessed with a farm, but he has to sow to get a harvest. So, God is not telling you that when you receive, it is a special blessing. No, it is conditioned on your sowing; it’s up to you. It is a play of the laws.

You work on the laws, and they work for you; you work against them, and they work against you. So, giving and tithing and all that you’ve just talked about actually are a means to your harvest. It’s not like God wants to bless you afresh, no. But, the blessing is the very law of sowing and reaping which He has given to you, and He told you to give your tithes and your offerings and other kinds of giving that the Bible talks about.

Now, your tithing particularly is a form of partnership; tithing is partnership. God didn’t say that “If you don’t give your tithes, you will not be blessed.”

The blessing is what brings about the tithing because tithe means a tenth of that which God has blessed you with, so He has actually blessed you, and that is the reason for the tithe. Your tithing is a testimony of your blessing. He’s not saying, “Bring your tithe, so you will be blessed;” He is saying, “I have blessed you, so give me the tithe.”

The tithe is the tenth part with which you honor the Lord. Now, when you don’t honor the Lord like this, you are not recognizing that the Lord is the one that is blessing you, and no one can say that God has never blessed him.

We have all been blessed by God in different measures, and we are all blessed. So, you probably got the teaching wrong as to give your tithe to be blessed. No, you give your tithe, because you have been blessed; it is part of your testimony.

KEEP TITHING;

“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”(Malachi 3:10).

Tithing brings you into partnership with the Lord. This means giving Him a tenth of all your income and every blessing He brings your way continually. When you do this, He fulfills His own part of the bargain by releasing into your life an unprecedented financial grace: “…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.”

It’s like a business partnership where one person has a 30% share and the other 70%. When they strike a good deal, they both must have their share of the profit. One partner isn’t doing the other a favor by paying him what belongs to him because it’s his right in the partnership. To do otherwise would mean stealing from him.

God wants you to keep tithing so you can bask in abundance and walk in His blessings. His financial plan for you far surpasses what any parent or financial institution could ever offer. He’s the one who gives you the power to get wealth. When you’re diligent in paying your tithes He’ll see to it that you never lack and that your life is in one direction only: upward and forward. God wants you to experience liberty in your finances, and walk in abundance.

If as a Christian, you’ve been experiencing financial difficulties, even though you’ve been paying your tithes, it’s not the Lord that’s holding you back. Keep paying your tithes and declaring the Word of faith, for the devourer has already been rebuked for your sake. You shouldn’t ever debate whether or not to give your tithe because it isn’t yours in the first place but God’s! So keep tithing, for this is the right thing to do; it’s what God demands in your prosperity.