Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We’ve learned that God did not create money. God’s economy is one of sowing and reaping. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sowed and reaped their decrees, their orders, by faith. No different than God did when He created all things good and perfect in the six days of creation. satan’s economy is demand and supply, which we have been taught from grade school through graduate and doctoral programs. Money, or mammon, is part of the curse. Demand and supply is a barter system. We barter our toil and labor for an exchange of money, which is of the curse. Jesus speaks to this when He states, “you cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mammon is thought to be the pagan god of wealth, power, and fertility in the Aramaic world. There are also other claims that mammon is the “god of self” whereby we try to bring about our own salvation through our own strength and wisdom. Salvation being our prosperity, our healing, our protection, and our deliverance. We see a lot of this in today’s churches. Jesus purchased salvation and all its benefits for us. But we try to climb on the cross and use our wisdom and strength to accomplish that which has already been done for us.
As written about in the previous messages, “Are We Declaring God as Our Source Part I and Part II,” the tithe removes the curse from the money earned in the system of demand and supply and blesses the other 90 percent. We can read Malachi 3:8-12 and see this. The tithe also opens the gateway to the blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) of The Blessing (Genesis 1:28). What brings the bountiful and exceeding abundant harvests? The offerings. The tithe protects the harvests because God promised to rebuke the devourer (satan) and will not allow him to devour your harvests. Jesus focused on speaking about offerings in Mark 4:26-29. He had already addressed the tithe in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42. Let me pause here for a second. If one tries to justify not tithing because the law was fulfilled or because Jesus was speaking to the Jews who were still under the law in these passages, this is terribly flawed. Jesus was teaching and preaching The Kingdom of God in this earth. There was no Kingdom of God in this earth under the Old Covenant. The Kingdom of God was ushered into this earth through Jesus Christ after His anointing at the River Jordan. Before this anointing, Jesus did no miracles or mighty works because He lacked the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and lacked power (Acts 10:38). With the anointing came The Kingdom of God.
Mark 4:26-29
26 And He said, So is The Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he [the man, the sower] putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
Jesus tells this parable in which He describes exactly how The Kingdom of God works. For whom did He describe this? For the angels? No. For Himself? No. For God? No. It is for us, His Sisters and Brothers. Man cast the seed into the ground. The seed is The Word, and the ground is the soil of our hearts. Next, the “how” occurs. The “how” is God’s doing. Not ours. God is responsible for the germination and growth of the seed. We just thank and praise God routinely for our harvest. We don’t sit and wonder if our declared Word is working (i.e. digging up the seed). Then, the harvest appears and “a man” puts in the sickle and reaps. What is the “sickle?”
Isaiah 41:15
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
God tells us in Isaiah 41:15 He will provide us “a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” Remember, first the physical, then the Spiritual. Isaiah is Spiritual to us as New Covenant Believers. We’re not actually using a physical sickle; we’re using a Spiritual sickle – The Word of God decreed by our mouths in faith.
“teeth,” in Isaiah 41:15 is the Hebrew word, “piyphiyah” which means, “edges, borders, mouths.”
Notice “a man” is only involved in the sowing (planting) and the reaping (harvesting). The in between, or “how,” is completely God’s doing. We just praise and thank Him for the wonderful, bountiful harvest we receive when it is time to harvest. Now, we can’t forget to call in our harvests. Remember, there is SOWING, and there is REAPING. These are two distinct events, both Word activated. There is a misunderstanding in churches about reaping. It is not automatic. The crops don’t gather themselves and stack themselves in the barns, in the storehouses. Just as the Children of Israel had to “gather” the manna, we, as sowing Believers must “gather” or “reap” our harvests just as Jesus told us in Mark 4:29. Just as God didn’t gather the manna for the Children, He doesn’t gather our harvests for us. Just as He doesn’t sow the seed for us. This is our part.
Reaping our harvests is simple. Each day we give thanks to God for all the seed sown through The Word, and we decree “harvests, I call you bountiful and plenty in The Name of Jesus of Nazareth. I call you in from the fields and into my storehouses. Storehouses, you multiply to receive my Father’s abundance. Father, I thank You that from Your abundance to me I bless others as you’ve commanded. Ministering Spirits, in The Name of Jesus Christ, I command you to bring in my harvests and leave no harvest in the fields.” That’s it! It’s this simple. I know. Some may be rolling their eyes and thinking this is a bunch of mumbo jumbo. That’s quite alright. I was once one of you, too. And prosperity was something I had to labor and strive for every day. Now, it just comes to me. Harvests roll in day after day. Why? Because Dianne and I have sown a LOT of seed, and we call in our harvests. There are many Believers who are excellent at sowing, but they are poor at reaping. Their harvests are waiting in the field. Get busy calling in those harvests and watch God’s Word come to pass before your eyes. Oh yes, don’t worry, God doesn’t forget any of the seed you sow. So, be patient and know that God always keeps His Word.
Psalm 20:1-5
1 (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;
3 Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.
4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.
If we, as Believers, withhold that which God has commanded us to bring to Him (the tithe) and lend to Him (offerings), we are like the man in the parable Jesus spoke in Luke 12:16-21. We are to give to others with no expectation of repayment. However, God sees it as a loan to Him, and He repays with interests (Mark 10:29-30). Did you hear the thud? That was another religious cow being tipped over. Study to show thyself approved unto God (II Timothy 2:15).
Luke 12:16-21
16 And He [Jesus] spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
In Luke 12:21, “rich” = Greek word, “plouteó” which means, “to be rich, to become wealthy, to abound in material or spiritual riches.” Strongs teaches us the way “rich” is used in this verse, it means, “is affluent in resources so that he can give the blessings of salvation unto all.”
The rich man in Jesus’ parable was rich to himself and not rich toward God. “Rich toward God” means to take of your affluence and use it in tithes and offerings to The Kingdom of God. We are to be “rich’ toward God. We are not to be “poor” or “modest” toward God. In being rich toward God with a cheerful heart that doesn’t grudgingly or of necessity give, God repays with great interest. I’ve had the religious lecture me that we should give to God with no expectation of receiving anything from God. And my reply is the same as Andrew Wommack’s. “I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.” satan has greatly deceived people with this thinking. Jesus, God in the flesh, taught us in Mark 4:26 and 29 that we are to both sow and to reap. To reap, we must have an expectation of what we’ve sown. Let’s look at II Corinthians 9:10.
II Corinthians 9:10
Now He [God] that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)
Notice what The Holy Spirit says in II Corinthians 9:10: “and multiply your seed sown.” Who is multiplying your seed sown and why? It’s perfectly clear. God, Himself, multiplies your seed sown. Why? So you can fulfill what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 and what Jesus taught in Acts 20:35. We are to bless others because we’ve been blessed. Look, how can we bless others if we don’t have substance to bless them with when God calls upon us to do it? One other thing. God will call upon you to give greater and greater blessings to others. How can you give greater if you’re not being greatly blessed?
I’ve had people tell me they will be glad to tithe and to bless others just as soon as they have enough so they can tithe and be a blessing to others. My reply? “No, you will not. Jesus has already spoken about this kind of heart.”
Luke 16:10-11
10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Jesus made clear that if we won’t tithe and give offerings off $200, we won’t tithe and give offerings off $200,000. I didn’t say this, Jesus did. I can only go by what The Word has to say. If we aren’t faithful with little, we will not be faithful with much. Jesus made it a point in Mark 12:41-44 to point out the poor widow and her giving. What if she had waited until she had enough to tithe? Jesus wouldn’t be pointing her out in The Scriptures. The poor widow trusted in The Word of Jesus and The Gospel of The Kingdom of God. When you arrive in Heaven, you will not find a lady there known as the “poor widow.” She left this earth materially and Spiritually rich, praise God!! She left as the “rich widow.”
Ken E. Hagin spoke about the time he had become a traveling evangelist at God’s direction. He’d left being a pastor of a church and gone on the road preaching and teaching God’s Word. After a year, Ken and his family were in terrible financial shape. Brother Hagin said he was complaining to the Lord how he had obeyed God’s direction to leave the pastorship and become and evangelist and was in terrible shape financially. Brother Hagin said he was well off at the church with a parsonage, a salary, meals brought to them, and new clothes and other items given to them by the congregation. Now, he had obeyed God and was in terrible financial shape. God replied to Brother Hagin that although Brother Hagin had been obedient, he didn’t willingly become an evangelist. Brother Hagin said it took him ten seconds to become willing. Then God told him that he was a hypocrite. “Why Lord,” asked Brother Hagin? The Lord said, “because you teach faith, but you don’t practice faith.” This floored Brother Hagin. The Lord instructed him to stop praying about money the way he had been praying about money. God told him:
- Claim what you need and/or what you want. (How do we have the right to “claim” what we want? Because we’ve been laying up. Because we tithe. Because we sow offerings. We have a Kingdom right to make a claim.)
- Bind satan and his demonic forces. (satan take your hands off of my money. I bind you and your demonic forces from touching my money and those involved in the money coming to me.)
- Command your ministering spirits to go get your money.
When we bring God His tithe and give offerings, we take our money out of this dangerous world and economy of darkness and invest it in The Kingdom of God. Doing so gives us the Scriptural right to make claims. Brother Hagin did so and never again had an issue with money.
God’s will, as many, many verses in The Scriptures point out, both Old and New Testament, is for His children to prosper Spiritually, physically, and materially – in this earth – to be a blessing, an increasing blessing to others. People are much less willing to hear anything about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Kingdom of God, if they are suffering from a need. The need drowns out anything they can hear. Need is a symptom of the curse. It is not of the blessing. The Blessing meets all of one’s needs and provides for an abundance – an overflow. Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 (blessings) and then Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (curses). You will see abundance and overflow in verses 1-14 and you will see need and lack in verses 15-68.
In closing, God is the ultimate wealth manager through His Son’s Kingdom. God absolutely wants His children to greatly prosper to bless others and to be an example to the world of God’s love and goodness. Study Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, just as Jesus directed us to do. Once they operated in faith, we see The Blessing of God all over them – and so did the people around them.
In Christ,
Larry