If we bring the tithe to the storehouse of God by richly giving to God, He will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing upon us; we need to offer God a sacrifice of praise continually, and we shouldn’t forget to give and share with others. Amen!
These days as we are getting deeper into the Biblical principles related to giving to the Lord and being delivered from mammon, even giving ourselves to Him to be full-time serving Him whether we work or drop our job, it is amazing to see what Bible says concerning this.
The Bible doesn’t say that God needs our money because He’s poor and so He needs our gold and silver; the Bible clearly says that God wants our heart.
Where our treasure is, there our heart is also. If our treasure is here on earth, with these earthly things and riches, our heart is here, but if in a practical way our riches and money are sent to heaven by our giving, our heart will be with the Lord.
What the Lord is after is not what we have; He wants to gain us, the persons, and He wants to gain our hearts.
So He reveals Himself to us and draws us with His beauty. As we spend time with the Lord, He unveils us to see who He is and what He is, and we are simply drawn to Him; we realize that He is the real treasure, the real joy of our heart, and the real riches.
So we just give ourselves to Him.
When we see what He has done and what He is continually doing for us, when we realize how wonderful He is and how generous He is in giving Himself with all His riches to us, we cannot but consecrate ourselves to Him. Amen!
The spontaneous reaction to the heavenly attraction is that we drop everything, even sell everything, and we just follow Him.
We human beings are made for much more than this world can offer us.
We have a deeper desire for higher riches, deeper enjoyment, and more profound knowledge of the Eternal One; what the world offers us and especially what money can buy for us cannot compare to this One.
As we spend time with the Lord in His word, as we come together with our vital companions to pursue Him and enjoy Him, we realize that we’re here for the Lord, not for ourselves.
Yes, we do have needs, and our family has many needs to be taken care of, and we do need to make sure we take care of these needs; however, we are here for much more – we’re here for His need, for His purpose.
Especially as we live at the end of this age, as we see that the Lord’s desire is to return soon, we need to not allow ourselves to be weighed down with pursuing money and riches but rather, trust in the Lord, offer a sacrifice of praise and remember to give and share with others, and we need to give our tithe to the Lord to richly supply His house.
May the Lord gain this in us in the church life today.
Bring the Tithe to the Storehouse of God, the Church, and He will Pour out His Blessing!
This sharing, this blog post, is not a “fund-raising call”, neither is it something that wants to inspire Christians to give to the church or to the preachers; this is something we need to bring to the Lord and live out in our Christian life.
In Mal. 3:10 the Lord tells His people to bring the whole tithe to the storehouse that there may be food in His house, and He will open to them the windows of heaven and pour out blessing until there’s no room for it. Wow!
Though this is a verse in the Old Testament speaking to a certain situation in Israel, the earthly people of God, the principle in this verse applies to us today.
The reason we lack and are in poverty is not that we don’t work hard enough; it is because we don’t give, we don’t bring the tithe to the storehouse of God.
We may think we have very little to begin with, and our earnings are barely covering our needs, so if we bring the tithe to the storehouse of God, we will have even less.
But the Lord challenges us in Mal. 3:10; He says, Prove me, if you will, by this.
It is time for us believers in Christ to really take God at His word and simply bring the tithe to the storehouse of God, and we will see what He will do.
The reason we don’t give is that we worry too much, we worry that God will not take care of our needs, or that we will not have enough to live with and take care of this and that.
We think that the more we have in our hands, the better off we are.
However, keeping things in our hands is the reason for our lack and poverty, while offering things to God is the very cause for blessing.
It is truly more blessed to give than to receive.
It’s almost as if the things that we keep in our hands and do not give are not a blessing to us; when we hold something back and do not bring the tithe to the storehouse of God, we experience lack and even end up in poverty. Oh, Lord!
The legal amount of offering which God required from the harvest of the Israelites is ten per cent; if we give to the Lord ten per cent of what we own, He will bless – He will even open the windows of heaven to pour out His blessing.
The principle in Mal. 3:10 applies to us today as New Testament believers.
If we are not stingy but bring the tithe to the storehouse of God, if we give to God what belongs to Him, the church is richly supplied and He will bless us.
If we full offer to God what belongs to Him, the needs of the church will be supplied, we will have a heart for the gospel, we will be delivered from the love of money, and the Lord will richly supply us.
The Lord wants to bless us, but do we give?
He wants to open the windows of heaven for us and pour out a blessing to us, so much blessing that there’s not enough room to contain, but do we bring the tithe to the storehouse of God?
God has a rich storehouse, and He is willing to bless, but what about our giving?
May we take God at His word and not look primarily at our need but to His face, allowing Him to infuse Himself into us and make us one with Him in our giving.
May we have many transactions with the Lord, many intimate conversations as we let go of our money so that our giving may be in oneness with Him and He will have a way to bless us.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we cast all our cares and anxious thoughts upon You. Thank You for Your rich care for us. We want to bring the whole tithe to the storehouse of God so that there would be food in Your house. Amen, Lord, we do not want to keep what is Yours: we simply bring it to You and give in oneness with You. Save us from holding back what is Yours. Save us from not giving. We trust in your promise. We praise You for Your infinitely rich promise of blessing us when we bring the tithe to the storehouse of the house of God. Amen, Lord, we want to gain You as our supreme reward; what we want is Your smile, Your presence in us and with us!
Offering God a Sacrifice of Praise and Not Forgetting to Give to Him and Share with others
Heb. 13:15-16 shows us two main aspects of our giving: on one hand, we offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, and on the other hand, we do not forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.
This is so precious and sweet.
God is satisfied with our praise and with our giving; these two, our praise and our giving, are a sacrifice on our side, but they satisfy God.
First, we need to give God a sacrifice of praise; though we may not feel like it, though it may seem that nothing is working out for us, we still need to offer God a sacrifice of praise.
We may feel that we have nothing to praise God about, but our spirit, oh, our spirit is always ready to praise God.
When we exercise our spirit even when we’re not in the mood, and we just call on the name of the Lord, we offer the fruit of our lips calling on His name.
Our calling on the name of the Lord from the lowest pit is a sacrifice of praise.
Our lips may rather complain or murmur, but we exercise our spirit and simply call, Oh, Lord Jesus!
Even our groaning in prayer to God, expressing the Spirit’s groaning in us, and calling on the name of the Lord, is our sacrifice of praise.
Similarly, we need to bring the tithe in the storehouse of God; though we may not feel like it, though we may think we don’t have enough for ourselves, we still need to give to Him and share with others.
Heb. 3:16 says that we should not forget the giving and sharing with others, for in such sacrifices God delights; it is easy for us to forget this, but we shouldn’t forget.
The fact that it is a sacrifice means that it costs us, it is unpleasant, and we may not want to do it with our whole heart.
We must give to the extent that we “feel” our giving; we need to give to the extent that we feel the loss.
Only this kind of offering can be a sacrifice to God.
If we just give casually and we don’t really feel the loss, it is a giving, but it is not a sacrifice.
On one hand, we need to offer God a sacrifice of praise, and on the other hand, we need to offer Him a sacrifice by giving and by sharing what we have with others.
Our praise and our giving are like two legs; if one is shorter than the others, we can’t walk properly.
Many times we come to the Lord’s table meeting and we don’t spontaneously offer God our praises and thanks, because throughout the week we held everything back.
We didn’t practice offering God the sacrifice of praise, and we did not let go of the things He gave us to bring the tithe to the storehouse of God in the church.
Many times we don’t have an adequate praise in the bread-breaking meeting because we fall short in our sharing and in our giving.
May the Lord shine on us regarding this, and may we be willing to pay the price and make the sacrifice.
May we be saved from just giving here and there, in a way that is casual and not in full.
May we offer up a sacrifice of praise, and may we follow this by giving to God what we have and also sharing with others.
May we not forget. Never forget.
If we merely praise God but don’t give, it’s like having only one wing; a bird can have one wing but can’t fly with it – it’s as good as not having wings at all. Oh, Lord!
We may come to the meeting and offer a superficial word of praise, but what is within cannot be released, because we didn’t offer a sacrifice of praise, and we didn’t bring our tithe to the storehouse of God in His house.
May we be saved from being superficial with the Lord – may we go deeper with Him to offer Him our sacrifice of praise and our sacrifice in giving and sharing what we have.
Lord Jesus, we offer up a sacrifice of praise by confessing Your name. Oh, Lord Jesus! We just praise You, dear Lord! We praise You even when we don’t feel like praising, and we praise You even though there’s nothing around us to cause us to praise You! Amen, Lord, we offer up a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips confessing His name. Hallelujah! Remind us, Lord, to praise You and also to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased! Amen, dear Lord, may we praise You and bring the full tithe to the storehouse of God, even if this is a sacrifice for us! Lord, we want to please You. May You gain Your satisfaction, and may we be delivered from holding on to our things and to money!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, and portions from, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 43, ch. 85, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Material offerings and the Lord’s Move Today, week 3, entitled, Material Offerings and Full-time Service.
- Hymns on this topic:
– There is always something over, / When we, from the Father’s hand, / Take our portion with thanksgiving, / Praising for the things He planned. / Satisfaction, full and deepening, / All our need He doth supply, / When the heart has tasted Jesus / Its desires to satisfy. (Hymns #595)
– Our mouth shut up defeats us / And wins the Devil’s smile; / So why not open battle / And chase him all the while. / By “sacrifice of praises” / And shouts of victory— / ’Twill cost us but our faces / God’s chosen fools to be! (Hymns #1095)
– Jesus is worthy to receive / Honor and pow’r divine; / And blessings more than we can give / Be, Lord, forever Thine. / Soon shall the saints, exalted high, / A glorious anthem raise, / And all that dwell beneath the sky / Speak forth Thine endless praise. (Hymns #183)
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