Apostle Don Meares
When you disobey God in tithing and the giving of offerings, it doesn’t matter how much you pray, how much you fast, or how many things you do. There are going to be certain things that are simply not going to happen for you until you decide to tithe and give offerings according to God’s specifications. You can expect the blessing when you start tithing and giving offerings His way. Many people only give God their offerings and think it’s enough. But if they are not a tither, they are not really giving God anything.
Malachi is the last prophetic voice that God sends to the children of Israel before the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist introduces Jesus six months before He begins His public ministry. Malachi is the last prophetic voice to get Israel ready to receive the Messiah. If they are not prepared to receive Him, then they will miss the most important season and visitation in their entire history. The Messiah’s arrival was prophesied in the Book of Genesis through the Book of Malachi.
When God wants to move you to the next level or a new season, He must first prepare you for a time of transition so He can pour out on you a fresh anointing. Malachi 3:1 tells us that God knows the entire levitical priesthood, and all of Israel is not ready to receive the messenger of the Covenant of Jesus the Messiah. As Israel has been waiting for their Messiah to come, waiting for change to happen, God says that the time has come and that all things are ready. Even if Jesus arrived 400 years after Malachi, a thousand years is like a day in the mind of God. He sends the Prophet Malachi to prepare Israel for what the Messiah will do. God has been trying to bring us into a new dimension, into the new seasons of blessing, and to bring revival. In the second verse, he says:
“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.”
God has been preparing us to bring us into a new dimension and seasons of blessing. He has been preparing us for revival. He says, “If you are not doing the things that are right according to God in your life, the same anointing that is supposed to bless you will end up destroying you.” The same blessing that was meant to bless you could destroy you. If you’re not prepared to receive what God has, the very thing He’s going to send you as a blessing will be a curse to you.
The Key to Revival
Could robbing God of tithes and offerings among us stop God from sending revival to us? It stopped with the children of Israel. This fact alone should give us a tremendous revelation of God’s supreme importance on our obedience to His will in tithes and offerings for our finances. We must be qualified by Jesus, our High Priest, to receive the blessing that He wants us to have.
For all of us to make it successfully through the year 2023, we have to be faithful and consistent. We shouldn’t miss bringing our tithes and offerings to God. In 2023, times will be tough, and things will most likely be more costly. Inflation will keep going up, and things will not be as accessible as they have been.
Between now and sometime in January, ask God what He would have you give as an offering. It’s going to be for reaching the nations. If you’re married, get together with your spouse and decide what God would want you to offer. It is an important decision for all of us.
Going back to the Book of Malachi, the priests and the people did not listen to the prophet. They did not change. When we look at the New Testament, during Jesus’ ministry, He displayed righteous anger in turning over the tables of the money changers in the temple, driving them out. These people made the house of God a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13). They cheated the people of the amount they had to tithe to the Lord by giving them less than the equivalent for their livestock and harvest.
In Malachi 3:7-9, it says:
“Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.”
If you do not give the proper tithe, in God’s sight, you’re a thief and a robber. You might think that your giving is just about you and your money. But scripturally and spiritually, what you’re doing is that you’re robbing God. The tenth belongs to Him. And the act of tithing is between you and God. Your money is just a byproduct of the relationship that is supposed to exist between you and God. Tithing is not just dealing with financial substance. It’s about the relationship. It’s about your spirituality in the dimensions of blessing that He wants to put in your life. It is not just about the money you have and earn. If you’re not a tither, you can’t be an offering giver because you have to be a tither for God to receive your offering. Even if you give all the offerings you want, without the tithes, you won’t experience the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold that He has promised.
Stealing vs. Robbing
There’s a difference between robbing and stealing. The concept of robbing means much more than just taking substance from someone or stealing something, whatever it is, from someone. It means to do bodily harm and injury to the one you’ve stolen from. So, when you refuse to tithe, you are taking something that doesn’t belong to you and doing bodily harm and injury. You’re causing pain and emotional distress.
When you don’t tithe, you are causing harm to the local fellowship to which you belong. Therefore, you need to repent and get right with God in this area of your life.
In Hebrew, the equivalent for the word “rob” means to restrain, obscure, block, or defraud. It means when you don’t tithe, you are preventing God from putting His covenant blessing in your life. Since we are the Body of Christ, we are affected by those who rob God because we are joined together. When one suffers, the others suffer too. And when one succeeds, the others succeed as well.
Here’s another perspective: When you rob God, you rob Him from being who He is. What does this mean? God, by nature, is a blesser. He is a giver. God says when you rob Him, you are stopping Him from blessing you the way He wants to. You are making Him look bad.
In Malachi 3:9 it says:
“You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.”
When you don’t tithe, or if you are inconsistent with your tithes, you are cursed. The curse did not come from God. You inflicted this upon yourself. If you don’t tithe, you can’t be a giver because God will not accept your offering. If you ask the elders and other people who God has anointed to pray for you, the healing, the anointing, the blessing will flow not because of them but because of you. If you’ve been praying for your family, career, healing, or other areas of your life, but you are not consistent with giving, you will not find the answers to your requests no matter how much you pray. You wouldn’t get the blessing even if God’s anointed prays for you.
But when you get right with God in your giving, you come into agreement with Him. He will protect you and your loved ones. You will receive healing. You will find favor in your career. This is because you are letting Him have His way and practice His nature of being a blesser. He will open doors for you because He wants to bless you. You are letting Him pour out His blessing upon you. When you tithe and give, you are living under the covenant blessing of God in Christ.
The Corporate Blessing
When people obey God in their finances, there is a corporate covering. There is an anointing that God releases over the house. There is blessing. There is provision. You are under His covenant. Evil cannot just do what it wants because you’re under the covering of God.
If you are under the covering of God’s Word, His will, His ways, and His direction, the atmosphere in your life will be that of growth, blessing, prosperity, and purpose. God’s destiny will come to fruition in your life. And because you are part of the Body of Christ, others will experience the blessing because of your faithfulness.
Here at Heaven’s Gate, we are trying to control the climate of God’s prosperity and growth in our lives. It is His will for us to be blessed no matter what the circumstances are in our lives. This is God’s intent for our church. When we obey God through our tithing and giving, we open opportunities for Him to pour out His best upon all of us. As we practice tithing and giving, let us choose what would bring blessing not just for us but for others. Our faithfulness in these areas will please God and impact many lives.
Allow God to pour out His blessings upon you and your loved ones! Learn more about the principles of tithing from Apostle Don Meares.
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