THE BIBLE AND TITHING

The best key to spiritual and physical prosperity

BY: Peter Qeko Jere. Doctoral Students=UFH

Tithing is one of the most hated and threatening subjects in the bible. People don’t want to hear about it. Preachers are many times afraid to preach it. Christians in many churches are mistaken to think that preachers or pastors want their money. Many would say: "he preaches about tithing because he is poor” while other would say, "they are at it again! because preachers are simply beggars. If anything, people hate to hear about tithing. Should you tell the church that next week it’s about tithing, some-would not come to church.

Tithing is the faithful action of totally giving a tenth (10%) of our income to the Lord. This is about giving the tenth of income and not what we may feel like giving. Tithing is the process of giving the tenth of ones property or production in support of religious institutions or priesthood. This is a practical exercise, which involves the process of giving a tenth to God. Tithing is a gift or payment of the tenth of one’s income to the church or other religious and charitable agencies. Tithing is that which belong to God hence it is the Lord’s. As regard its originality, tithing came from the very heart of God (John 3:16). This is about God tithing something for human kind. This is the character of God that He did it before the foundation of the world that he offered Jesus as a sacrifice once and for all. God tithed his very life by giving his Son Jesus Christ so that we can have our salvation.

Now tithing is not about giving money to enrich church leaders or to make your pastor happy but it’s about giving (10%) of what the lord has blessed you with. You don’t give too much but only a tenth many think that to give offering every week is tithing. This is not true at all. Thank God that we give our offering to God every Sunday or Saturday morning. But in tithing we don’t just give anything but 10% of our income to God. The bible says you have to give full tithe, which is 10% (Malachi 3). Using a simple arithmetic, Satan many times tells us that our income is 100% while according to God and as far as He is concern our income is 90%. This is whether we like it nor not, whether it’s a problem or not! This means that if your monthly income is K30000, K3000 belong to God. This also means that what you need to use if K27000 while K3000 has to be given as a tithe to God. It’s as simple as this. You don’t even question it but you just have to do it because that is what the word says! The prophet Malachi says that this 10% of our in come, belong to God and we dare not eat it but bring it in the Lord's house (Malachi 3). This explains that we have no biblical or whatever right to use or eat the 10% while at the same time, we have all the biblical right in the world to use and eat this 90%.

Why should we tithe? Is it necessary to tithe? We tithe firstly to show our obedience to God. The one thing that God hates is disobedience. Many times the children of Israel were in troubles because of disobeying God. God could send them into captivity for seventy years and sometime he handed them over in the hands of their enemies. We need to understand we are not spared if we are disobedient to Him. God will punish every disobedient act we do. God will never leave us unpunished. The prophet Malachi is saying that we sometimes ask saying how have we robed God? It’s in tithing that we disobey God. Its sad that we have many fake Christians in the world today who call on the name of the lord and dress themselves in a Christian jacket but at the same time they get very busy each month end terrorizing 10% of the monthly salary which belong to God.

Secondly we tithe so that we enjoy God’s blessings (Malachi 3). God commands us to bring our tithe into the house of the lord. Now when we bring our tithe to the lord, the bible says we shall enjoy God’s Blessings. These are the abundant supernatural favour from the throne of Grace. The deal is, we tithe and God in turn will shower rain of all supernatural favour that is according to His divine needs on us. God shall bless us according to how He knows it best, something that is beyond our comprehension. He wants to bless us far more than we imagine. In the process therefore He wants to see whether we take him seriously or not. These abundant blessings are physical and spiritual and they will never come unless you move forward in faith and trust and tithe into the Lord. The moment we tithe, God blessings full of His divine supernatural favour shall begin to flow as never before in your life and He meet and become a solution to your immediate situation.

Thirdly we tithe so that our harvest may be full (Malachi 3:20b). In this context tithing is regarded as the art of planting into the kingdom of God. When you tithe, you plant into the kingdom of God. When we tithe every month, we plant into the kingdom of God. A tithe in other word is a seed that we plant and has to be handled with care. Every month this has to go where it belongs so that it can reproduce. Now if you eat the tithe them you eat the seed then you should forget good harvest. However the one thing to note is the fertility of the ground or church where this seed is planted. Where it shall germinate or die prematurely.
Having said this, we need to know that this tithe is a key that opens heavenly gets for our blessings. When we tithe God becomes faithful to His words and opens the floods gets of heaven and showers uncounted blessings for our lives.

Finally we tithe so that we show our faithfulness to God. The book of Hebrew says that faith is belief in the things unseen (1:1). In tithing, we move in faith. We trust the lord to be faithful in his word. If we give the 10 %, we trust that God will see us through without this 10%. We trust God to be faithful to His word. We give the tenth to God and God remain faithful as He comes back with all the promises that are contain in His word for us. So we move but in faith.
However, a word of warning is this; don’t mock God by giving Him that which is not the tithe. He is the all-knowing God. God is not man that He can be mocked and He is not a respecter of what you think you are and He is the God of justice and He punish out of his divine love. So lets enjoy God and bless our lives as we give our tithe to God.