But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8:18.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
Tithing opens the door to increase. It turns the helm of your life to prosperity, protection, promotion, and peace. Tithing should not be seen as a burden but as an opportunity to have access to all.
If you are faithful in little things, I can trust you with greater. If you do not tithe because you think you have too little, you will never increase to having much.
If you are in lack, attack. How? You attack lack with tithes and offerings. Turn your life around, turn the helm from lack to prosperity with tithing.
My Word is the Sword of the Spirit and it will take down the lies of Satan every time you use it, and you must use it to tread the devil under your feet when he attacks, you must answer his lies with the truth of My Word, but My Words on prosperity include tithing and very particularly that I will rebuke the devourer off your finances and things in your territory if you tithe and give offerings to support My house and ministry in the earth. “Your Kingdom come!”
But there is more here. It is about not forgetting in your prosperity who gave you the resources and the power to gain wealth.
In the wilderness, I taught the people I had redeemed out of slavery in Egypt that prosperity in Me is not dependent on your circumstances, they were slaves that had been freed by My strong arm and brought into a barren wilderness on the way to a land flowing with milk and honey. But in the natural, without My supernatural provision and favor, they would have all perished. In that dry and barren land there were no resources to rely on no matter how hard they worked at it on their own. They had to rely on Me. And I made them prosper.
I gave them the riches of Egypt when they departed, I gave them a glorious tabernacle to build, and then I moved in and joined the journey. I fed them with the finest heavenly substance that gave them perfect health and size for forty years. And it just fell out of Heaven every morning on the dewfall.
But even that favor showering upon them, they had to follow My Words to gather it and not have it melt away before they took it up. And they had to observe Shabbat by taking the double portion the day before and resting on the Shabbat with Me. I taught them that it was not just physical bread they should seek, for in the desert no matter how much they toiled there was no bread, but My Word. And My Word directed them how to prosper. I rained down Manna from Heaven, but they had to gather it early and not keep it over night except on the eve of Shabbat. Trying to horde the Manna and store it up for their future did not work, it got full of maggots. No amount of saving would make them wealthy. It was I who gave them the power to make wealth. And I had made them wealthy by giving them the favor of their neighbors, who were their masters in Egypt, so that the wealth of the wicked went over to My people in one swift shaking. But they had to follow My Word and go to their neighbors and ask for those things. And they did obey Me in that. I did not take them out empty-handed. And I am the same yesterday, today and forever. And those who gave abundantly to building My tabernacle from the riches I had given them still had an abundance of wealth left over after giving.
And all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work which he was performing, and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the LORD commanded us to perform.” So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more. For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it. Exodus 36:4-7.
All sufficiency and an abundance for every good work I have planned for you that you might live in it. Tithing is an opportunity that you would be wise to take.
But let us go back to what I taught them in the desert for it is good for you to learn from their example so you follow what is good and reflect that out as luminaries in a dark world, holding forth and holding fast to My Word. My Son summed it up for you this way, seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and My righteousness and everything will be added to you that you need and more. And tithing is one of the ways to seek Me first with the first and then the rest is added in never ending supply. I open the windows (floodgates) of Heaven and release the blessings therein because you have paid the royalty for the use thereof.
Let us go back to the wilderness where there was no physical way to increase and yet increase they did. It was from Me. And even in a land of abundance, the lesson is the same, it is from Me and you keep it by doing what My Word tells you to do to increase.
It all begins with My Word, the first sign that you are Mine.
All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:1-2.
What am I telling you? In the wilderness there was nothing and if they did not live by My Word they could make nothing. But when they followed My Word, they had everything, even in a barren place. Everything they needed for life and godliness.
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3.
I gave the physical food and I gave them My Word to teach them spiritual realities as well. That man does not live on bread alone, health, peace, and prosperity come from obeying My Word, for in it is wisdom. By My Word I teach you to profit and the way you should go. If only you would hear and do My Words, your prosperity would be like a flowing river that never runs dry.
Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. Deuteronomy 8:4-6.
A parent raises up a child and teaches him the way he should go to have a successful life. And that is what I do for you, for I am the best of Fathers, for I can see ahead and know the end from the beginning. And what was I disciplining them about? A life of no fear knowing that if I could set a table in the wilderness where there was nothing and bring water gushing out of dry, flinty rocks and rain down bread from Heaven, that there was nothing they would ever lack if they followed My Word and honored Me as their source. And from all that had taken place in Egypt to free them with the ten plagues, the Passover lamb, the riches of their neighbors being gifted to them, and from the parting of the Red Sea providing a way where there looked like no way, what was I disciplining them to train them up? That nothing was too hard for Me, nothing to wonderful for Me, and nothing impossible for Me if they just followed Me by hearing and obeying My Word. I taught them that they would never fear lack if they honored Me as their source by obeying My Word. And that Word contained the instruction to tithe. I taught that to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I taught it to their descendants.
I was bringing My people into a good land that would respond to them and produce abundantly. But remember the Garden of Eden, the place of abundance, and there the first man and woman forgot the source of all that. You could not forget it in the wilderness where there was nothing but Me to give you each day what you needed, and I did so in abundance (remember the quail piled up for miles around the camp?) and I wanted them to live in the blessing alone and not open a door to the destroyer through pride of thinking they had done it all without Me.
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. Deuteronomy 8:7-10.
And now understand the power of the tithe. He keeps you mindful of your source in humble gratitude for the One who gives you the power to make wealth.
Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Deuteronomy 8:11-14.
It is then you need to look back and remember where you came from. You need to remember the Manna, otherwise, you may say in your heart, “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.” But you shall remember the Me, the LORD your God, for it is I who am giving you power to make wealth, that I may confirm My covenant with you. All I have I give to you and all I ask is that you remember Me as the One who gives you all good things.
He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 8:15-20.
What was the answer so you would never forget? The sign of the tithe.
Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the LORD my God that I have entered the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 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 26:1-11.
What does the tithe mean? I tell you in that same chapter where I tell you how to present the first fruits and the tithe.
You have today declared the LORD to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. The LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken. Deuteronomy 26:17-19.
I am your God and you are My people. My Word, My Shabbat, and My tithe. Signs from which wonders are born. Never forget. You are all the work of My hands. You owe Me your very self. But instead I have given you all I have as your own, even My beloved Son that you might live your life through Him. You are with Me always and eveything I have is yours. Why would you refuse to honor Me with your tithe?
I love you. Those who honor Me, I honor. Those who despise Me are lightly esteemed. Do not rob Me of the opportunity to bless you by stealing My tithes and offerings because if you do, I cannot rebuke the destroyer for you because you are illegally using My property.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test 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 a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:8-12.