Debunking the Myths About Tithing…. To Tithe or Not To Tithe?

TITHES and FIRST-FRUIT

In every covenant it means that I give you my strongest points and then you give me mine. It is an alliance on behalf of both parties and although it was God who initiated the covenant, He is a business man, so God expects an ROI (return on investment), and we must remember He expects something in return.

“Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there I have directed a widow there to supply you with food. So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?

As she was going to get it, he called, and bring me, please, a piece of bread. As surely as the LORD your God lives, she re- plied, I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die. Elijah said to her, don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:

The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land. She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.” 1 Kings 17 v 8 – 16 NIV

 The Power of First Fruit

Elijah pronounced a judgment on the land, which came to pass. The issue was, that now, Elijah was also living with the results of his own prophetic word; he himself had no food.

Widows in those days were poor, the culture was different, there was no social benefit, no funding and women in this age group did not work as they do today.

So we can see in her comment, ‘As surely as the LORD your God lives, I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die,’ the hopelessness of her situation.

Elijah’s answer, ‘don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said, but first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have, and bring it to me, and then make something for your- self and your son.’ Let’s dissect this, as a man, that answer seemed totally insensitive, with no heart of God at all for this woman, or did he understand a principle, that we the church have missed.

 The principle is this:

You give your first to God, and the rest will never run out!

So he calls on her to honor that principle, and the jar of oil never ran out.

Jesus taught the same principle in a parable:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”Matthew 6 v 19 – 24 NIV 

Principles of First Fruit Offering

 1. Your heart will follow your treasure.

Your heart wraps around where you put your money. Wherever we put our money we naturally care about (organisations, charities etc.)

To say we are ‘not about money’ is a religious statement. Jesus taught more about money than any other subject. Our life IS about money, we can not live without money! Ecclesiastes says’ money answers ALL things!’

Another religious saying ‘you shouldn’t give to get,’ sounds spiritual! Less than 3% of people tithe, so do we have such an epic issue in the church that we need to tell people not to give to get? Jesus said ‘Give and YOU WILL receive!’ If He says, when you give you will get, then trust that!

Whatever your heart wraps around will birth in the natural.

If you want something to birth into the natural then the best thing YOU can do is sow money into it! Buy CD’s, give seed into that revelation.

2. You can’t serve God and Mammon.

Jesus broke culture, because the Aramaic language was classed as ‘unclean,’ so whenever Jesus switches from Hebrew to Aramaic, as He does in this sentence, then we MUST take note. He did the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, ‘if you hold onto anger you stand before a court and judge etc,’ then He went on and said ‘if you go so far as to call your brother ‘a fool,’ which is where He changes the language from Hebrew to Aramaic, and said in Aramaic (fool) ‘Racca,’ it is even more dangerous. Why? He was saying unforgivenenss to this degree is a contaminated activity!

So in the verse about Mammon, He switches from speaking in Hebrew to using the word Mammon in aramaic. He was saying, ‘do we live to worship material possessions or the kingdom.’

 Or we could say our credit card/cheque book reveals our worship!

3. ‘The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!’ Why this statement…. because Jesus is still speaking about MONEY!!

In the first century, if I want to call you generous I would say ‘your eye is full of light.’ If I was to call you stingy I would say ‘you have an evil eye.’

Have you ever heard people say they gave me the ‘evil eye?’ It was referring to this statement, meaning the person was stingy toward me.

Jesus was saying your generosity flows like a lamp, to the whole body, which will permeate your being, but your stinginess will do the counter of that. Stinginess makes you self centered.

Two things are needed for a harvest:

Fertile ground and seed… Both must converge which then = harvest.

 Many times we plant a lot of seed, but no harvest, and often it is because we are sowing on infertile ground.

Or, we have fertile ground, and instead of sowing into it, we eat the seed, that was meant to be sown.

God says He gives ‘seed to the sower.’ Not to the storer. If you eat your seed, that is all it ever stays, seed.

Giving

Everything that comes from God is three dimensional, because He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are three dimensional, Spirit, Soul and Body. (3 John 1). The Heavens are three dimensional, the archangels, The Resurrection, and we could go on

Giving comes out of the heart of God, (He was the greatest giver, when He gave His son), so therefore giving must also be three dimensional.

Constantine in the 4th Century changed the three dimensions of giving, into two.

Tithes and offering!

 If Giving has always been three dimensional lets extrapolate that:

THREE DIMENSIONAL

First thing we MUST understand is that your tithe and first fruit ARE NOT, the same thing. So when we are taught that the tithe and first fruit are the same, our mind then becomes the filter, in which we put tithes and offerings, back into two dimensions.

So when we read, where they brought their first fruit, our mind automatically says, ‘that’s tithe!’ YET, in Leviticus, it says that they could not eat until the tithe, and the first fruit were separated.

FIRST FRUITS is 1/40th of your gross increase that goes directly to the man of God in your life, or we could say the spiritual authority in your life.

We will see what the Rabbis taught and how we know the percentage in a few paragraphs.

IT IS NOT 40%
It is …… 1/40th or 2 1/2 %(two & a half percent)

OR $12 on $500.00


$25 on $1000.00


(We will look further at first fruits in a moment)

 KEY TO YOUR WHOLE LIFE

 TITHE

Why is tithes in Malachi plural? The answer is because there are three tithes.

There are three different Hebrew words, but one English word, for the word TITHE.

Here is a breakdown of the Hebrew words:

Ma’aser Rishon… a Tenth was for the church. 10% of your gross income that goes to your local church where you are being spiritually fed. This is also called ‘The Lord’s Tithe.’ Malachi 3 v 8 – 10 and Leviticus 27 v 30

Ma’aser Sheni… one tithe (or a tenth) was the tithe to yourself. This is the tithe for your investments, etc. This tithe, was for your children’s legacy, and heritage. This tithe was taken out after the first fruit and the first tithe, then, worked out from the profit remaining.

This is two thirds (2/3) of 10% of your net income that goes to yourself! Yes that’s right to you! This is how the bible could say leave an inheritance to your children’s, children!

You can use this tithe to pay off debt, to save and invest but the point is to separate it so as to build wealth for your coming generations. The Jews always understood that wealth was to be passed on for generations and to continue growing so as to set up a legacy of wealth for the future.

Just as God is a generational God and the Jews ha a deep revelation of this, not just with the name but also with wealth, so should the church be generational in all we do.

If you were to separate this 10% from birth and put it into an account with compound interest what would you have?? Imagine the financial nest egg you would have by 40 or 50. This money then invested in the right form of business could change the direction of the generations to come.

Calculate this tithe AFTER First Fruits and Taxes. Malachi 3 v 8 – 10,
Deuteronomy 14 v 22 – 23 and 
Deuteronomy 14 v 26

Ma’aser Ani… was the tenth or tithe, that went to the poor, widows, strangers and aliens.

This is the third self tithe (Ma’aser Sheni). This is not offerings!!! Offerings are entirely different!

This is one third (1/3) of 10% of your net income that goes to the poor, widows, orphans and strangers. In the Old Testament the way they handled this was for 2 years they put aside the tithe for their family and on the third they gave up their family tithe ( Ma’aser Sheni) to the poor. Or you can simply separate this tithe in to 2/3 for your family and 1/3 is the tithe to the poor. You can sponsor orphans, orphanages or old people etc.

 Calculate this tithe AFTER First Fruit and Taxes.

Jews in USA are 4% of population and yet hold 40% of the money. God wants us, the church, to tithe so we can be blessed, because God’s Kingdom is based on giving! Sadly, because the children of God wouldn’t tithe to themselves, and be obedient to His Word, God then had to get the government to do it for us.

People ask, do you tithe on the gross or the net, the answer is both.

The first is before anything is taken out (gross). The second tithe, to yourself, is after taxes are taken out (net).

God’s second tithe was God saying, I just want you to be blessed and for you to bless others. God’s plan for you was for you to tithe to yourself, all your life, to invest, so by the time you retire, you would be a multi, multi, millionaire.

In the age of agriculture how was the FIRST FRUIT offering calculated?

They had a field, and in the field a certain amount of the crop came up and ripened first, and it had to be harvested.

So this first ripened fruit was called the ‘bikkurim.’ When harvested, they would set it aside.

 They had an interesting belief, that Paul quoted in:

“If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.” Romans 11 v 16

They had the same belief for the first born, this was vital, for the rest to follow.

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and.” Romans 8 v 29 NIV

God longed for a family to be like Him, therefore as He is so are those who come after Him, as Jesus Christ is the firstborn!

What is true of the first fruit, is true of the crop!


The only way the ‘bikkurim’ could become Holy, is if it became

‘Terumah!’

They would gather the crop, bind it together, and take the first part of the crop to the priest, lift it high and place it into the hands of the priest, as he represented their spiritual authority.

By doing this it ‘sanctified’ their whole crop!

To a Jew if he didn’t do this the rest of the crop was cursed!

Adam and Woman in the Garden, God said everything is at your disposal, except that tree, that is Mine. They instead ate the first fruit, and the curse came upon, not just them, but the ground also.

So whatever seed was sown into the ground would never give a full harvest.

Adam and Woman were the first born, and remember the actions, behavior etc. of the first born determined the rest of those born after them!

Cain and Abel’s offering, was not rejected because it wasn’t a blood offering. Think logically, like a Jew. Both had a business, one looking after flock, and another had a business of produce in the field.

Cain’s offering was rejected, because the first fruit offering was not given.

This was a time before the priesthood was set up, they gave their ‘Terumah’ or first fruits to their father, as he was the priest of the home.

“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the LORD. Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering…” Genesis 4 v 1 – 5 NKJ

 Cain did not give the first fruit offering, so therefore, the curse was not only on him but also on the ground.

‘And at the same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes…” Nehemiah 12 v 44 NKJ

“And we made ordinances to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD.” Nehemiah 10 v 35 NKJ

We need to take the English word, first fruits out, and replace it with the Hebrew word, Terumah.

Exodus 25 v 2

‘Sons to raise a Terumah to me’

Numbers 31 v 41

‘Moses gave the Terumah to the priest’

The best of all first fruits for all your Terumah to the priest to cause a blessing on your house, family, job etc.

Ezekiel 44 v 30

Proverbs 3 v 9 – 10

‘Honour the first fruits’

 Honouring the first fruits, ties you to a blessing, on your house, on your business, on your family, and to revelation!

In the New Testament, the Rabbi with the greatest school and with the most prominence, was called Hillel, they even wondered if he was the Messiah.

Remember when they called Jesus ‘Rabbi,’ it was because He also had to build His credibility on the earth, with the people.

In reality Jesus could have taught them, He was the Son of God, but Jesus recognised the need for the wealth of knowledge, education, and credibility, so Jesus the Son of God, learned under the Rabbi Hillel, and Shammai.

Hillel’s teaching on ‘Terumah,’ at a 1/40th level was that ‘his eye is full of light.’

If he worships with ‘Terumah’ on a 1/50th level, his eye is a middling eye, and if on a 1/60th, then he has an evil eye.

This was exactly, what Jesus taught about our eye full of light! Those who did not pay their ‘Terumah’ at all, were called infidels.

As the age of agriculture passed, the Jews asked how can we honor God with our ‘Terumah,’ then they were told to honor the Lord with between 1/40th to 1/60th of their gross wage, but keep in mind the teaching of the percentages!

It was tied to the increase of your wealth, the blessing on your life. It was tied to everything you did, because if the first fruit is Holy and sanctified then the rest is also!!

Romans 8 says, ‘We have been given the first fruits of the Holy Spirit’

This is why many can be spirit filled, but still struggle with insecurity. We have the first fruits, not the full measure yet. In other words the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, makes me whole and Holy. So when I get the full measure, I then become glorified.

“And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. The first fruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.

For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons forever.

So if a Levite comes from any of your gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the place which the LORD chooses, then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the LORD. They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.” Deuteronomy 18 v 3 – 8 NKJ

 In other words, even if your pastor has wealth and money, he is still worthy of your firstfruit or Terumah.

“This also is yours: the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings (Terumah) of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual ordinance forever. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.

All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the LORD, I have given them to you. Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.” Numbers 18 v 11 – 13 NKJ

The only one, who could eat the first fruit ‘Terumah,’ is the pastor, and not be cursed.

 Remember Jews thought function and Greeks thought form, so when they waved it, they said ‘God I’m giving it to you’ and then said, ‘Now I am giving it to my pastor!’

You follow Terumah, and you will get more impartation than you ever have in your life, because your heart will follow and be tied to where your treasure goes.

Why Should We Honour First Fruits

We are commanded to!

As a perpetual allotment in covenant, for our spiritual authority. If someone sows into your life, you sow back.

 We got away from this teaching in the 4th century. The disciples when they wrote in 80AD, set aside a whole chapter that was dedicated to the ‘Terumah’! This was a major part of Jewish life.

We are to share in all good things with those who teach us. ‘Let him who is taught share in all the good things that he has, God is not mocked, what a man sows he will also reap’!

God gave Jesus Christ as a first fruits offering. This is deeper than money!

For Christ to become the first fruit offering of God, He actually had to become the ‘Terumah,’ to be Holy, and therefore make us Holy!

Remember He said ‘If I be lifted high, I will draw all men unto me’ and then at the end of His life, He said, ‘into Your hands I commit My Spirit,’ because His only spiritual authority was His Father.

Terumah, remember must be lifted high, and then placed in the hands of the spiritual authority over you. He offered His life as a ‘Terumah,’ to His Father!

The purpose of it was so that others will call us blessed! So the covenant is manifested in the earth.

This entity is tied to your wealth, your seasons, your health, revelation.

 The Jewish people have a revelation of something, and, they don’t even believe in Jesus, BUT God always honours principle.

Only 4% of the population in the USA are Jewish, but they have 40% of the wealth, they don’t recognize Jesus Christ, yet they are blessed.

How, or why, because they have a revelation, that God honours PRINCIPLE!!

Unfortunately in the modern Christian Charismatic/ Pentecostal church today, we hear statements like, ‘God knows my heart, so therefore He understands why I can’t tithe etc.’

True, God knows our heart, but God will not override His own laws, and He is a God who honours principles.

We trust God with our eternal security, our children, our health, but when it comes to money, we don’t.

We say religious statements like, ‘I’m not sure if that; first fruit, tithing thing, is for today!’ That is like saying gravity is not for today! Or we say ‘ New Testament is give 100%,’ yet those who say that still have computers and iPhones , cars and houses!

God’s principles and ordinances, covenant, are forever and forever for God, is timeless and limitless!

The church is supposed to be the city set on a hill, the light in the world, and we saw how that manifests, as we saw above means, generous, fruitful, blessed, but unfortunately the church, ‘ the greatest entity on this earth,’ is still dark concerning money!

Unfortunately most Christians are not living the life we are supposed to live. We spiritualise it and say ‘I’m living by faith’, but the way we live by faith is not what God intended, when He said ‘walk by faith.’

God’s way was to leave an inheritance, not only for your children, but your children’s, children, and that inheritance was not just a Mont Blanc pen for each child!

Over 1/3 of the teachings of Jesus were on money. Most marriages that fail is due to money. The average debt in each household is $10,000, (which I believe is a low estimate).

“Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians 6:6 – 10 NIV

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

This is the most preached message, on every area of life, but how many hear tithe and offering messages, where we say, ‘just give!’ In doing this, we have avoided the truth, that if you give, you will receive! In an effort to spiritualise the money message, we have said, ‘you shouldn’t give to get,’ and there- fore only 3% of people tithe!

Imagine if we preached salvation like we preached money, no one would get saved, there is no conviction!

Jesus validated sowing and reaping in the New Testament, when He said ‘give and it will be given to you!’

Can We Expect a Harvest When We Sow a Seed. Yes!!

It is consist with every other reaping principle

No expectation, produces an ignorance of the harvest

No expectation, creates an atmosphere void of faith. No faith for expectation of harvest, does not please God.

We don’t give to get, BUT we sow to get a harvest!

WHEN YOU SOW A SEED GIVE AN ASSIGNMENT TO THAT SEED!

Every seed has a DNA within it to tell it what to grow!

So if we sow with no expectation of harvest, means we devalue our property.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, in what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground.

Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the LORD of hosts; and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 3:8 – 12 NKJ

Malachi tells us it is NOT wrong to expect a harvest, or return, on your giving. Malachi says we are robbing God when we don’t pay TITHES!!

He says we rob Him when we don’t tithe to ourselves, the second tithe! Why? Because God’s plan was that we would be a wealthy and prosperous people! If we tithed as we are supposed to, then in five generations the Christians would have all the money!

The world is not impressed with the things we think are amazing!

The world will not take financial advice from a poor person, no matter how many legs grew and ears opened by their prayers.

God’s will for us was that we would be a blessed people, so blessed the nations would look at us and say, we want what they have!’

It is time to be the FIRST in our family, the FIRST to leave a great inheritance to our children

TITHING

Now when speaking about tithing, remember we are talking about the 3 dimensions of tithing, the WHOLE tithe.

We should tithe, not because it’s law, but because it is a vital part of covenant.

Tithing was around 1000 years before the Law, and before there was a nation.

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has de- livered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tithe of all.” Genesis 14 v 18 – 20 NKJ

This is 430 years before the Torah was thought of. This was principle that was passed down from father to son.

Melchizedek didn’t tell him to tithe! It has nothing to do with LAW, it is COVENANT.

“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3 v 29 NKJ

If you choose to activate Abraham’s promise, you are his seed. So therefore the wealth that is in the seed of Abraham, is mine, because of the covenant.

Covenant means to ‘cut’. So when we choose to tithe, we cut open the reproductive features of the fruit of Abraham, and it opens up all the possibilities of Abraham to us. Just as if I cut open an apple and inside is ‘seed.’

To sow, you need seed and fertile ground. The only thing seed is good for, is to sow back in the ground. Every harvest has a part within in, that is not meant for anything else, except to sow back again. Just like an apple, the seed is not meant to be eaten, but to be sown.

 

2. Tithing opens the windows of heaven for our land.

Remember Jews thought function, Greeks thought form.

Greek thinks; open window, a Jew thinks; what does a window do?

It lets you see out of it! So when God says ‘I open the windows of Heaven’ He is saying, ‘I will let you see My vision for your life.

I will let you see in the heavenlies, what I have been seeing all along.’

It is also a pathway to keep things in, and out, it is protection.

 So to honour God in the FULL tithe, is to open up a vision system, so you can see what He sees. You will go toward what you see!

If you thought the same thoughts as Bill Gates for the past 30 years, you would be where he is today! You are what you think!

So TITHING opens up a whole new thought process within you.

 3. Tithing rebukes the devourer off our seed.

The word devourer in Hebrew means ‘seed eater’. There is never a harvest when the seed is eaten. The tithes make the ground fertile, for the seed.

4. Tithing protects the life source of our fruit.

In other words, that the fruit does not come up too early and ruin itself! If some if it came up too early, it would literally ruin us!

5. Our tithe is not our seed, it is our fruit!

God wanted a family, all He had was a Son, so He sowed His ‘ firstborn’ Son.

God sees the end from the beginning, so when He gives, He doesn’t see the seed, He sees the harvest. Give looking at the harvest you are calling forth, not the seed.

If God looked at just the seed, He would never have given Jesus! Instead He looked at the harvest, you and me.

The tithe is NOT the SEED, it is the FRUIT of the SEED sown before.

The tithe keeps you employed but the seed gets you the promotion!

WHEN YOU GIVE, DON’T LOOK AT THE SEED, LOOK AT THE HARVEST IN THAT SEED!

Give Terumah to your spiritual authority, then the three tithes, and see His Covenant of blessing come to pass in your life.

Be Blessed

Amanda