Topic: Upgrade Your Tithe [Tuesday 9, May 2017]
Memorise: And as soon as
the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance
the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the
increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in
abundantly. – 2 Chronicles 31:5
Read: Malachi 3:8-12 (KJV)
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat
in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I
will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not
destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her
fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
Bible in One Year: Deuteronomy 9-10, Jeremiah 28:5-17, Hymn: Sing hymn 10
MESSAGE:
If you want to experience the blessings that God promised His children,
you must be prepared to fellow divine financial principles. Do you know
that your seed will determine your harvest? 2 Corinthians 9:6 says,
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly;
and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
From the above scripture, we learn that if you spare or hold back a good
part of your seed, God will also hold back a good part of the harvest
He wanted to give to you. On the other hand, if you go beyond the norm
in your giving, God will also do the extraordinary regarding your
harvest. This is why I encourage you to grow in all forms of giving. It
is wrong for you to remain on the same spot in your offerings when God
keeps increasing you. Do you know that you can provoke a change in your
financial situation by increasing your offerings even when your income
has not changed?
In addition to growing in your offering, you can also grow in your
tithe. You can go beyond the basic level of tithing which is 10%. The
Lord once told me to exceed my tithe and watch what He would do; He said
I could call the difference a seed. Sometimes in 1979, I attended a
Kenneth Hagin conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which had about 17,000
people in attendance. During the meeting, there was a fund-raising
event. The brother who took the offering challenged everyone to give
their very best, and surprisingly, he added that he and his wife would
match the total sum we all gave. Astonished by his challenge, we were
certain he would be in the red by the time our offering was counted.
When we had all given our offering, a total sum of $13.5 million was
raised; surely, we thought, we would be unable to match this! However,
to our great surprise, when the total was announced, he said, “Is this
the best you all can do?” He and his wife then wrote a cheque for that
exact sum. When I saw this, I said to myself, “This man must know
something I don’t know, and I am going to find out what it is.” Wise
people always gather knowledge; they seek to know what made a great
person great, so as to apply the same principles. By the time I
discussed with this brother, I learnt that five years before, he started
a business with $500 and struck a deal with God that God would receive
90% of his profit while he would keep just 10%. As at the time he was
telling me his story, his business had grown into a $50 million company.
I took up this challenge and increased the percentage of my tithe. What
can you do that you have not done before, to change what you normally
receive from God? Rise up and do it now.
Prayer Point: Father, grant me the grace to upgrade all areas of my life.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A.
Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God,
one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the
President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries.
iOpenHeavens is the electronic version of the Hard Copy. The Open
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