Why I Tithe.

(Click Here to listen to this episode on the podcast page)
One of my favorite topics of all time:

The Tithe.

Besides giving my life to the Lord and being filled with the Holy Spirit, nothing has changed my life more than when I committed to be a tither.

I am where I am today, I have a strong relationship and complete trust in the Lord because of it.

I never worry about money, or the future for that matter, because I am a tither.

So what exactly is tithing?

To keep it brief, tithing is the act of taking the first 10% of all your income, and giving it back to God at your local church where you are spiritually fed.

Back in the day, it was used to pay the Levites. The Levites’ job was to focus on the Lord’s work in the tabernacle.  The tithe allowed them to focus on their mission, instead of being distracted by day jobs.

In the same way, you want your Pastor focusing on Pastoring, not trying to mow lawns on the side to pay his bills.  Make sense?

Tithing is ultimately an act of worship, we “sacrifice” 10% of our income and give it back to God, thanking and praising Him for loving us and being our Source and Provider.

The Scripture

The main tithing scripture we use is found in Malachi 3:10 

10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) 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!

 

That is a deal I want to be a part of.

The Blessing Connector

When we tithe, we give God permission to operate in our financial lives.

We are literally saying, “God I trust You, I want Your help with my money situation, I want to team up with You, and You become my financial advisor.”

Tithing connects us to The Blessing and removes the spirit of mammon that is on money.

It allows us to operate in God’s Economic system.

Is this such a hard concept?

I remember the first time I heard about the tithe.

I read Malachi 3:10-12 like this:

1. God tells me to bring all the tithes (the FIRST 10% off my gross income) into the storehouse. (The local church where I’m fed spiritually)
2. Try Him, Test Him in this
3. When? NOW.
4. If I do, then He will open the windows of Heaven.
5. He will pour out a blessing so great I won’t have room enough to receive it.
6. My finances won’t be devoured, He’ll protect them.
7. My vines, my businesses, won’t fail to produce, I’ll be a producer.

The Benefits of Tithing

So, let me get this straight…I bring God 10% of the money HE GAVE me in the first place, then I get all these benefits:

• God opens the windows of Heaven for you.
• He pours out a blessing so great you won’t have room to take it all in, you’ll have to pass it out to others.
• He even lets you test Him in this area. He basically double dog dares you to try Him! (This is the ONLY place He says to test Him)
• Your crops (what your business produces, your finances, your accounts, your investments) will be abundant.
• Your money, your stuff, your crops will be protected. The NKJV version says “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground.” -BONUS!
• The nations will call you blessed, because they will see your land (your home) is such a delight.

One translation says, “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.”

Another reads, “Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.”

And probably my favorite, “See if I won’t open for you the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you a blessing far beyond your needs.”

Well then of course I’m going to tithe! I feel like I’d be dumb not to.

I’m so thankful for all God has done, giving Him back 10% seems like nothing!  I’m all in.

It’s easy to see, the benefits of tithing FAR outweigh the initial sacrifice it takes to start giving the first 10% of your income to God. (It quickly moves from a “sacrifice” to an “opportunity”)

That’s all I needed to hear – pass me a bucket!

I’ve been tithing for over 15 years now, and Lord has NEVER let me down on His Promises found in Malachi 3:10-11.

Since I committed to being a tither, I have never missed or even been late on any payment of any kind.

God has always, and will always, take care of us financially, not just meeting our needs, but pouring out a blessing so great we won’t room to receive it! – Read my blog, click on some other posts, you’ll find testimony after testimony of this being true.

God Wants You Blessed

God wants you blessed with a blessing without measure, beyond your wildest dreams, and far beyond your needs.

He just needs you to give Him permission to do so.

He even said you can test Him! Try it!

We’re talking about money here, He knew it would challenge your natural instincts, that’s why He dared you to test Him.

He can make that bold claim because He knows it works, He cannot lie, if the Bible says it, I believe it.

And now that I’ve lived it out my entire adult life, I am walking proof that God does what He says He’ll do.

My entire mindset towards money has changed, it’s not a source of grief, pain, or worry. To me, money has become a great tool to bless others with and do the Lord’s work.

The Best Part:

The tithe brings about the snowball effect of increase.

Tithing opens the windows of Heaven and God pours out increase on you, He pours out blessings, He pours out finances, and when He does this, you now have a new opportunity to Tithe and give off of that increase, and when you do, you get hooked up even more!

Then you can give more, then you can get more, then you can give more on and on. This is how you achieve guaranteed financial growth.

Operating in God’s Economy is not like the world’s economy.

In the world’s economy, you are a victim to whatever is going on around you, the stock market going up and down, housing bubbles bursting etc, but in God’s Economic system, your finances are protected from the devourer.

You become a victor, no matter what the world’s economy is doing.

And as long as you’re a tither, from now until you’re dead, the windows of heaven will be open above your life pouring out blessing far beyond your needs.

I also like how God set tithing up as a percentage, not a flat amount.

That way, no matter how much money you have coming in, everyone gives the same percentage. It is completely fair.

What Tithing is Not:

I want to make something perfectly clear, for your benefit, what tithing is NOT:

Tithing is not 5% or just any amount you want to give. (Tithe means tenth) Malachi 3:10 says to bring the ALL the tithes, the whole tenth, to Him

I often hear, “Well we’d like to tithe more, but the kids have a lot of activities going on right now, so we tithe when we can.” – I gotta break it to ya, that’s NOT tithing.

You don’t just tithe every once in a while.

That’s  just giving some money to the church when you have a couple bucks left over.

Operating this way, DOES NOT give you full access to the benefits listed above.

Tithing is NOT giving off your net income. Tithing is off the gross income. Why you ask?

Because when you pay off your net income, you are actually paying Uncle Sam first. You’ve put God second.

Nothing wrong with paying Uncle Sam, in fact, you better pay him, but not first.

(I know you want to pay off your net, it’s easily justifiable in so many ways, but trust me, once you get a taste of the tithing life, you’ll want more)

Be bold. Give off the gross, and walk in the fullness God’s Blessing.

You are either a Tither, or you’re not.

You are either in or you’re out. If you dive in and commit to giving 10% of all your income back to God, you will walk in the fullness of His Blessing.  After all, He gave you His word on it!

One of the funniest things I hear is people say, “Well we were tithing, but then we had a big bill come in, I lost some hours at work so we had to stop tithing…”

I respond, “So just to be clear, you needed a blessing poured out on you, so in your infinite wisdom, you took the Source of your blessing -the windows of heaven – and closed it by not tithing, so that no more blessing could be poured out on you?!

You needed blessing, so you went and closed the source of your blessing?

Oh humans.

The Controversy:

I had no idea there were so many CHRISTIANS dead set against destroying the concept of tithing.

I was doing some research and found entire websites, forums, even books that not only teach that tithing doesn’t work, but they condemn those who tithe and teach it, as though it’s a demonic principle or something.

I’ve never met those guys, BUT I have met several people in real life who don’t think we should be tithing.

And to be honest, every person I’ve met that vehemently argues against tithing, is struggling financially, not prosperous, (often downright broke) and their lives simply are not attractive. (I don’t sugarcoat things here on the blog ;))

They usually have a bitterness when it comes to their faith, their Pastors, and church in general.

They’re the “realist” types, they often talk about high gas prices, how they can’t afford things, how they’d do things different if they were the pastor, how it must be “nice to be rich.”

The argument against tithing

Their main argument is that tithing is under the Law, and since Jesus died on the cross, fulfilling the law, we don’t have to do it anymore.

Problem here is, Abraham tithed 430 years BEFORE the Law was put into place. (Genesis 14:20, 28:22, Hebrews 7:1-11)

Others will argue that tithing is not mentioned in the New Testament.

I’ll just let you look here: (Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42)

The other hole in this theory is that just because one of God’s promises was given to us in the Old Testament does not mean it’s not for us anymore.

If that were true, then we’d have to throw out hundreds of Old Testament promises Christians use all the time.

The one other argument that seems to come up is that people won’t tithe because they don’t trust what their church will do with their money.

This is a ridiculous argument as well because it reveals:

1. You don’t trust that God placed you in the right church. (Or maybe you didn’t ask God where He wants you, you just picked a church out of convenience without getting His direction?)

2. If your church truly is shady – GET OUTTA THERE GENIUS!

The Misunderstanding

As I’ve been researching the topic of tithe and have come across hundreds, maybe even a thousand angry “anti-tithe” commenters on other Christian blogs, the main underlying theme is this:

“Christians are not commanded to tithe, so preachers who preach tithing, just want our money so they can make themselves rich. God just wants us to be cheerful givers, but we are not commanded to tithe anymore.”

The second part of their argument stems from a misunderstanding from a few verses back in Malachi 3:8-9, I want to clear it up for you, it reads:

8“Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings,

9 You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.

This is not saying that God has cursed the people for not tithing and giving offerings.

But without tithing (The Blessing Connector) then that spirit of mammon has free run of your financial life.

There’s a curse on money, and without giving God permission to work in your finances, well then, you’re on your own!

You’re saying, “Lord I got this, go ahead and shut your window of heaven, I’ll get my needs met just fine, I’ll pick up an extra job on the weekends, and beg my boss for some more overtime, I’ll just bless myself thank you!”

What happens if I don’t Tithe?

If I don’t tithe, am I condemned to hell? Nope!

Will God Himself curse me if I don’t? Again, no.

Can I be financially blessed if I don’t tithe? Yes, but it will be limited, and it will be without a true peace.

You can live a good life and go to heaven without tithing. But I guarantee your life on earth won’t be all it could be.

You’ll struggle, you’ll worry, you’ll fight, you’ll scrape and crawl, your accounts will be depleted and devoured over and over, your stuff will always be breaking down, it will be one thing after another for you entire existence on earth…but hey, at least you didn’t have to give 10% of your income back to God!

Consider this:

If this post has bugged you, if it’s caused an anger to rise up on the inside, I want you to dig deep and truly find out why this is such hot button with you.

Tithing breaks the spirit of mammon that’s on your money. It proves that you love God more than you love money.

The spirit of mammon causes you to put your trust in money, among other things, you’ll find yourself feeling like you have to “protect” what little money you have. (I have a great lesson on this I highly encourage you to read at the bottom of this post)

If you’re not tithing, then it’s fair to say mammon has a grip on you and your decisions, because deep down you believe that you truly can’t afford to tithe.

As though God would break His promise and let His child go under by being too generous!

Why I Tithe

I love God.

I really, really, do.

Giving is an act of love, it’s an act of trust.

I think I would tithe even if it didn’t come with all those benefits.

I’d do it just because He loves me, and I love Him.

But I’ll tell you what, the perks of tithing changed my life, and they’ll change yours too.

Tithing not only changes your financial game, but it takes your entire faith life to the next level.

When you give, even though it seems like you can’t afford to, or it doesn’t make sense in the natural, it proves your trust is in God, and in His Word, not in money.

And I can promise you my friend, He does not take that lightly. He will show up in ways that will make your jaw drop.

Trust me here, I have no hidden agenda, you’re not tithing to me, you’re tithing to your local church.

I just want you to increase, I want you to have the windows of heaven open and pouring out on your life, I want you to gain, so you can turn and bless others.

I want God to have permission to operate in your finances so you can do some big things for the Lord.

I don’t want financially worry to distract you from all the great things God has planned for you.

I want your life to be directed by the Holy Spirit, not the almighty dollar.

You can do this, I believe in you.

Take a deep breath, write that check off your gross income, then start praising Him and thanking Him for all He’s done.

If you’ve been struggling financially, tithing is your answer.

The Bottom Line

If you’re a Christian, and you don’t want to tithe, that’s fine. No one is going to make you.

You can be a Christian and not walk in mercy, you can be a Christian and not walk in forgiveness, you don’t have to walk in divine health, or divine prosperity and abundance, you really don’t have to.

But if God has made all this available to His children, why not live it out?

Early in the faith I was around Christians who didn’t tithe.  Now I am surrounded by those who do. There is a peace, a freedom, that they walk in that I’ve only seen in other tithers, it’s hard to explain.

There’s something supernatural about it.

Try Him. Test Him.

I’m glad I did.

If you truly want all of God you can get, give your life to Him, get filled with the Holy Spirit, and be a tither.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Click below, and join the army of fellow Christians all around the globe who receive my monthly income reports, Biblical strategies for getting ahead financially, and I’ll even send you a FREE copy of our “Quick Start Guide to Financial Increase!”

And if you’re like me and just can’t get enough on tithing, here are some other popular articles! (Don’t worry, they’re MUCH shorter)

The Symptoms of a Non-Tither

Should I Still Tithe While In Debt?

Do I Tithe Off My Tax Return?

Do I Tithe Off a Loan?

The Power of Tithing and Financial Breakthrough (Joyce Meyer – Quick Video)

Straight Talk About Tithes (TD Jakes Video – REALLY GOOD!)