My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and show yourself to be My disciple. John 15:8.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
The tithe is a sign between you and Me, a joining, that I am your source and that you live in Me and I in you.
He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:27-28.
Shabbat, the Sabbath, was a sign between you and Me that I sanctify you and set you apart as holy as you abide in Me.
“But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” Exodus 31:13.
The tithe is a sign of fruitfulness in that consecration.
My Son uses the metaphor of a vine and its branches to describe the fruitfulness of abiding in Me, that is, how it works, that I am the source and supply that causes you to bear good fruit. And you will note, the branch attached to the vine does not toil painfully and bear fruit on its own, all it needs flows into it from the vine and bearing fruit is the outcome that must take place if it is not hindered or severed from the vine.
Your fruitfulness and My Kingdom touching the world with the benefits of Heaven are linked to our oneness, our joining as one. The vine to which you are attached determines the type of fruit you produce. The vine gives the life, nature, and nutrients to the branch, and the branch in turn blossoms and produces fruit. Fruit unto Me is fruit unto the world. Healing to the nations. I bless you with My life in you to be a blessing, first to yourself and then from the abundance of your fruitful life to others.
Just as a husband and wife join as one flesh and bear the fruit of children, so you join as one with Me in the Spirit by remaining in My Word and My Word remaining in you, and you bear fruit unto Me. The tithe is the return to Me as a sign that your fruitfulness is in Me, and it gives Me the glory.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so show yourself to be My disciple. John 15:7-8.
What attaches you securely to the vine? You abide in Me as a branch in a vine when you abide in My Word and My Word abides in you. And the more filled you are with My Word and My Spirit, the more fruit you bear, and so prove yourself to be My disciple. You are transformed from glory to glory, and you give Me glory as the vinedresser with the vine as My Son. But it is the branches that bear the fruit. I give you that gift, full sufficiency for you and an abundance for every good work. All you have is from Me, but I enable you to produce the fruit that blesses you and all the world. We are partnering with one another.
LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. Isaiah 26:12.
All I have is yours and all you have is Mine, I created you, I planned you, I gave you life, but all I ask you to return to the work of My house is one tenth of your increase. The more fruitful you become by opening your heart wider and wider to receive from Me the more people and projects you can reach as your tithes become bigger due to a bigger harvest. And of course, you can always give more over and above the tithe in offerings.
Tithing and giving offerings should be a joyous time that we spend together as you release the blessings I have put in your hands into My hands to go to work in bringing My Kingdom to earth. You tithe to your great High Priest and He presents it before Me and then you and I draw close to decide where and how much of your offerings you should give and to whom they will go.
Tithing and giving offerings can bring you very close to Me when we do it together in joy for the harvest. I love to give and you are in My image. You will find that giving is a joy and something that takes down the barriers that holding on tightly to your property without tithing or giving offerings raises in your life. People who will not give but constantly take do not have a close relationship with Me because they have hardened their hearts to My ways. They also have a fear of giving to others and have hardened their hearts to others as well. If I direct them to give something to another they will not for fear of not having enough for themselves.
Their prayer time is not a two-way conversation but all one sided—just begging for things or testing Me to see if I can perform My Word. They put up a barrier around themselves and what they own that I cannot cross because they do not have a heart to share with Me but only to take from Me. And they complain that I do not give them enough or what they are asking for, such as healing. But I am more than able to give it to them but not in the way they are doing.
Those who honor Me, I honor. They know what to do with honor. Those who have no honor will not act with integrity.
Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’ Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever’; but now the LORD declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed.” 1 Samuel 2:29-30.
Where did the lack of honor begin with Eli, the high priest at the time of Samuel’s birth, and his sons? In how they treated the tithes and offerings I entrusted to them to administer. They gobbled them up as their own and became fat on the offerings that were to be dedicated to Me and My house. They robbed Me of My tithes and offerings, keeping all the best for themselves and offering Me the leftovers and it demoralized them and the people so that visions and revelation became rare and infrequent.
Eli had become deaf to Me and honored his dishonorable sons above Me. Neither he nor his sons kept up any kind of relationship with Me and the thing that turned them away from Me was taking the tithes and offerings away from Me, seeing no importance or sacredness in the tithes and offerings or having any reverential fear of taking them in ways forbidden by My Word.
They proved unfruitful. They detached from the vine and withered up and died. Eli’s sons came to a bad end and so did Eli. It gave Me no pleasure and was not My plan for their beautiful lives that I had so honorably given them. I had warned them many times, but they would not listen. I could not rebuke the devourer for them for they had gone over into his territory for he was a thief from the beginning.
I taught My people to celebrate and rejoice with good things and fellowship when they brought Me the tithe and the offerings. It was a time to draw close to Me and rejoice in all the good I had done for them in prospering the work of their hands.
Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O LORD have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given you and your household. Deuteronomy 26:10-11.
It was a time of testimony of all they had done with the seed I had given them to sow and the flocks and the herds I had multiplied. And it was a time of looking forward to greater blessings as they gave Me the sacred portion so that the rest was blessed.
Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the LORD with a whole heart, and King David also rejoiced greatly. 1 Chronicles 29:9.
The tithe is a sign between you and Me, a joining, that I am your source and that you live in Me and I in you. And as you begin to draw close in the intimacy of sharing all, you will experience a whole new relationship between us. It will unfold like a flower that will produce fruit. It is one of trust and faithfulness that gives you such confidence of good, of receiving all you need and more besides, that you have no fear of giving. You become blessed to be a blessing. And you will find that blessing others’ lives and meeting their needs when they cannot, will become the best part of your abundant prosperity.
Draw close to Me and I will draw close to you. Include Me in your giving, not as a duty you dread but as an opportunity to grow in grace, which is My life flowing into you. The branch on the vine gets to produce the fruit but it is to be shared. If you just leave fruit on the branch, it will finally rot and fall off to the ground.
I love you. Take the life I have given you and let us do something with it. I have a fruitful life of good deeds all prepared for you in advance that you should walk in it. Attach to the vine and that is where fruitful adventures with Me begin. A branch is not afraid that if it shares its fruit it will never produce another one. And neither should you be.