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Biblical
Prosperity in Perspective 2
Basic
Elements of Biblical Prosperity, Part Two
by Pastor John Hamel
In part one of this two-part study we saw
the first three basic elements of Biblical prosperity – God, You and His
Word. God is able to prosper you and He will do it through His Word
if you will allow Him to do so.
God will prosper you in ways that are
presently unimaginable to you, if you will allow Him to do so. Let’s
move right into ….
Basic
Element Four ... Tithes & Offerings
We saw in part one of this study the importance of hearing the
Word of prosperity and speaking the Word of prosperity.
However,
hearing and speaking alone is not enough. We must be diligent about
paying tithes and obeying God’s leading
about specific offerings. We will have an entire study on tithing and
paying offerings later in this series.
For now just know that the
word “tithe” means “tenth.” Any English dictionary, Hebrew or Greek
Lexicon will confirm this for you.
God expects us to return to Him
one-tenth of everything He brings into our lives. Over and above the
tithe, He expects us to also give an additional offering. He allows us
to decide how much that offering will be by the leading of the Holy
Spirit. To not pay tithes and offerings is disrespectful, disobedient
and dangerous.
“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.” (Malachi 3:10)
Anyone who refuses
to invest in God’s Kingdom, as He instructs, will find that God will refuse
to invest in him or her personally. He will continue to love those
individuals but He will be unable to bless those individuals
mightily. Of course, there are always some who insist that tithing was
only for the Old Testament and that God no longer expects His children to
invest in His Kingdom. Well, that is not what the Bible
teaches. The New Testament instructs Believers to tithe, as well.
“And here men that
die [Ministers] receive tithes; but there he [Jesus] receiveth
them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.”
(Hebrews 7:8)
Here the Apostle
Paul instructs Believers to pay tithes on Earth and Jesus in Heaven will
receive them. Where does a Believer pay their tithes and
offerings? First, the Holy Spirit said through the Prophet Malachi
that tithes are to be brought to the “storehouse.” The storehouse
would be wherever you go to Church. That is your spiritual
storehouse. Tithes are to be paid to local Pastors. If you do not have a
Church or a Pastor, the Holy Spirit will show you where to pay your tithes
while you are searching out a Pastor. Offerings are to be paid
wherever the Holy Spirit directs. It is clear from Scripture that God
has determined how much the tithe is and where it is to be paid. It
is also clear that we determine how much our offerings will be and where
they will be paid. Yet, it is always wise to get the Holy Spirit’s
leading concerning offerings.
You will recall
from part one of this study that the Bible says we can shout for joy when
we favor God’s righteous cause. (Psalm 35:27) Believers who refuse to
invest in the Kingdom have no reason to shout. They are not going to
prosper. Believers who tithe sporadically have no reason to
shout. Sporadic tithing is not tithing at all. It is rebellion and disobedience and will
disconnect one from the prosperity flow quicker than anything I can think
of. We must discipline ourselves to pay tithes and offerings
consistently and not block the spout where miracle prosperity comes
out. It is a Covenant thing. We keep our little part. God
keeps His big part. Tithes and offerings are the first real step into
supernatural Biblical prosperity.
Basic
Element Five ... The Anointing to Prosper
God has anointed, or empowered, His children to prosper.
The word anointing means “to rub in deeply and to smear all over.”
Did you get that? God wants to marinate you in prosperity. God
wants you to be saturated with prosperity in order to favor His righteous
cause. It takes big bucks to preach a big Gospel to a great big
world. God, our Father, has anointed us and empowered us to receive
financial and material wealth to perform His will in the Earth. The
Bible makes this perfectly clear.
“But thou shall
remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth
thee POWER to get wealth, that he may establish
his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as
it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:18)
This could not
possibly be any clearer. The Hebrew word for “power” in this verse
actually means, “Force, might and strength.” This is a reference to
the anointing to prosper. A supernatural power comes into our lives
when we begin to pay tithes and offerings. That supernatural power
causes things to happen for us financially and materially that do not
happen for those who refuse to pay tithes and offerings.
This is what
happened to the founder of the Holiday Inn, the founder of Welch’s grape
juice, the founder of Quaker Oats, R.G. LeTourneau
the man who developed most of the earth-moving equipment that is in the
earth today, and so many, many others. They paid tithes and offerings
and God made them millionaires and in some cases billionaires.
Someone said, “That could never happen for me.” I
always respond to that comment with this question, “What is the difference
between an individual who always says ‘I can’t’ and an individual who
always says ‘I can’?” The answer? There is no difference.
They are both right.
If you do not believe you can and will prosper,
poverty will knock you right over the head. If you do believe that
you can and will prosper, prosperity will take you out ahead, out ahead of
all those who do not believe.
The power to
prosper is in your spirit and in
your possession right now. Never say that you have no seed to
plant. There is something that you own, even if it’s just a button
off of your shirt. You can take that piece of property, put it in the
offering plate and get the process started. God will honor
that. The anointing to prosper resides in your spirit and the means
to prosper resides in your possession, or in your seed. It’s up to
you what you do with it.
“Now unto him [God]
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the POWER that worketh in us,”
(Ephesians 3:20)
The word “power” in
this verse of Scripture is the Greek word “dunamis.”
It means “miraculous power, might, strength, violence, mighty wonderful
work.” It is actually the word from which we get our English word
“dynamite.” It is the equivalent of the Hebrew word for power that I
told you means “force, might and strength.”
This power, this
anointing, this dynamite is resident within every Believer. It is
capable of blasting them out of the realm of limited, natural provision and
thrusting them forcefully into the realm of supernatural, unlimited Godly
provision.
God is able to
prosper you. You must be willing to allow Him to do so. It is a
Covenant thing. We keep our end of the Covenant by paying tithes and
offerings. God keeps His end of the Covenant by blasting us with
prosperity to do His will. The power, the anointing to prosper is
resident within each one of us. We must never be afraid
of paying tithes and offerings. We must be afraid of NOT paying
tithes and offerings. At first it may seem difficult to tithe.
It might even hurt a bit, but God promises that the end result will be
joyous prosperity.
“They that sow in
tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing …” (Psalm 126:4-6)
Tithes and
offerings will never lead you into trouble. Tithes and offerings will
always lead you out of trouble. To the man and the woman who say, “I
simply cannot afford to tithe” we say, “You simply cannot afford to not
tithe.”
A farmer who “cannot afford to plant seed” will never see a
harvest. Ask God to forgive you for that attitude. Ask Him to show you HOW you can tithe and He will.
He is not angry. He is not your problem. He is your solution. He is waiting
for you to ask. (John 16:23)
Be blessed … John
and Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
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