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Biblical
Prosperity in Perspective 24
Offerings, the
Supernatural Power of Percentages, Part Two
by Pastor John Hamel
We will continue
studying the supernatural power of giving offerings to God over and above
the tithe.
In our last lesson we
saw that the Hebrew word for offering actually means “a present.” The
offering is a present or a gift to God.
Although God has
pre-determined that the tithe is to be one-tenth of our increase, He leaves
it up the individual Believer to determine how much the offering will be
over and above the tithe.
We also saw in our last study that our
financial harvest is actually based upon the size of our offerings and not
upon our tithe. Paying tithes is not giving. Paying tithes is
giving BACK something that belongs to the rightful owner, God.
Offerings are giving a gift over and above the tithe.
Jesus made it
perfectly clear that the giving of offerings, not paying tithes, determines
our financial rate of return. (Luke 6:38)
I also told you that someone once aptly
described the difference between the tithe and the offering as
follows. “The tithe determines your obedience to
God. Over and above that, the offering determines your rate of
return.” How true this revelation is.
Therefore, we are now
studying how God rewards us financially based on offerings over and above
the tithe.
In closing our last
lesson, I told you how the Apostle Paul got a hold of Jesus’ revelation in
this area, too. Paul had much to say about giving proportionately
towards an expected harvest, over and above paying tithes.
The
Apostle Paul's Revelation of the Power of Percentages
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he
which soweth bountifully shall reap also
bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6)
These are the words of the great Apostle
Paul. Paul said, “He which soweth sparingly
shall reap also sparingly…”. The original
word he used for “sparingly” is “stingily.” Paul said, “A stingy sower is a stingy reaper.”
The Message Bible puts Paul’s words this
way. “Remember, a stingy planter gets a stingy crop: a lavish planter
gets a lavish crop! I want each of you to take plenty of time to
think it over and make up your own mind what you will give.”
Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul was not known
for “padding” his words or “soft soaping” spiritual mechanics. He put
it out there plain and clear. Stingy is as stingy does. Lavish
is as lavish does.
R.G. LeTourneau
was the “inventor” of most of the heavy earth-moving machinery operating in
the Earth today. Actually, Brother LeTourneau
would be the first one to tell you that his “inventions” were actually
“revelations” given to him by the Holy Spirit. (Proverbs 8:12) He went
to Heaven in 1969.
Prior to that he
failed often in the earlier years of his career. He received the revelation
of tithes and offerings as a younger man. As he was faithful to pay
tithes and offerings, God was faithful to give him inspired ideas for
developing and manufacturing earth-moving equipment. Most of the
highways and airport runways that have been cut into the earth today are a
result of the revelations God gave him to build the monstrous equipment
needed for such tasks.
Brother LeTourneau
said that the more he gave to God in finances, the more God gave to him in
inspiration to build his monstrous earth-moving equipment. The LeTourneau Corporation still builds some of the biggest
earth-moving equipment in the world today down in Longview, Texas. You can
read his story in the book,
“R.G. LeTourneau: Mover of Men and Mountains.”
Right in the middle of what is called “The
Great Depression” in this Nation, when everybody was going broke, Brother LeTourneau
actually made $35,000 profit in his business. Becoming puffed up with
pride, he withheld his $5,000 annual offering to his local Church. He
said he did so in order to reinvest it into his business so that he could
give the Lord an even greater offering the following year when he
anticipated a net profit of $100,000.
Unfortunately, Brother LeTourneau
had not yet realized the importance of following the rules as prescribed by
Jesus. Brother LeTourneau failed the testing and proving of the Lord by
withholding his promised gift. Within one year’s time his anticipated
$100,000 profit turned into a $100,000 loss, bringing him to his
knees. Repenting
before the Lord, he pledged to God the repayment of the $5,000 offering to
his Church for the year he skipped and the same amount again for the
following year. He did this in the face of a $100,000 debt, no money
for his payroll and his bookkeeper threatening to quit.
Our faithful God took him at his
word. Brother LeTourneau’s fortune changed
so dramatically that within four years he and his wife founded the LeTourneau Foundation. Brother and Sister LeTourneau took 90 percent of the stocks from the LeTourneau Corporation and invested them into the LeTourneau Foundation.
This money was then used to establish God’s
Salvation-based Covenant in the Earth. Brother and Sister LeTourneau used their supernatural increase to preach
the Gospel worldwide. At one point the LeTourneau
Foundation was worth $40 million.
Brother LeTourneau
often said, “It is not how much money I give to God but how much of God’s
money I keep for myself.” He also told Forbes Magazine, “I like to do
two things. One is to design machines, turn on the power and see them
work. The other is to turn on the power of the Gospel
and see it work in people’s lives.”
He ultimately did pretty well in both
departments. At the time of his traveling on to Heaven, he held over
200 patents for earth-moving equipment. These were all ideas given to
him by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, ideas no one had considered
previously. One of his monstrous earth-moving machines, weighing in
at over 100 tons, is capable of cutting a 35-foot wide swath through a
wooded area. It can cut down trees up to five feet in diameter,
stripping them of their branches, stacking them off to the side and
continuing the process endlessly.
He did pretty well turning on the power of
the Gospel, seeing it work in peoples’ lives, as well. Besides
investing 90 percent of his income into establishing God’s Salvation-based
Covenant in the Earth, he would fly anywhere in his own aircraft to preach
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only man to have ever been
President of both the Christian Businessman’s Committee International and
the Gideons International. It is through
Brother LeTourneau’s efforts and investment that
we find Bibles in motel and hotel rooms the world over today.
Prior to leaving the Earth, Brother LeTourneau once told my Pastor, “I’ve invested 90
percent of my income into the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Even still, I have so much money in the bank, I
simply do not know what to do with it.”
Brother LeTourneau’s
bountiful reaping is not the exception to the rule. This can happen
for anyone who has the same courage and faith to follow the rules as
prescribed by Jesus and the Apostle Paul.
I
am not saying that everyone is called to do what Brother LeTourneau and his
wife did. But whatever God has called you to do, He will cause you to
prosper in it, if you will pay your tithes and generous offerings
proportionately.
It happened for the
Founders of Holiday Inn, Quaker Oats, Procter and Gamble, Colgate, Ivory
Soap, Welch’s Grape Juice, Hydes Mentholatum, the Young Men’s Christian Association,
Laidlaw Scales, Baldwin Locomotives, the Wynne Oil Corporation, J.D.
Rockefeller and so many, many others.
These individuals were trained
at some point in their lives to give both tithes and offerings to the
Almighty for the express purpose of establishing His Salvation-based
Covenant in the Earth. (Deuteronomy 8:18) You can do this, too.
I double dog dare you.
Never
say, "I Have No Seed to Plant above My Tithe."
I’ve heard people say it, “After I pay my
tithe, I don’t have anything left to give.” I always tell them,
“That’s not what the Bible says.” Let’s look at what the Apostle Paul
said about having seed to plant above the tithe.
“Now He that ministereth
seed to the sower both minister bread for your
food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your
righteousness;” (2Corinthians 9:10)
The word “ministereth”
that Paul used actually means “to furnish and to contribute.” Paul is
actually saying that God will furnish or contribute seed for you to plant if you will ask Him to, in Jesus’ Name. He will either
cause the seed to come directly into your hand or He will give you an inspired idea as to how to get some seed.
“I wisdom [the Holy Spirit] dwell with
prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.” (Proverbs 8:12)
The Holy Spirit will give you knowledge of
some sort of “witty invention” that you can use to come up with some seed.
Just stay out of fear and give Him half a chance to do so.
”Fear not, little flock; for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give
alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens
that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.”
(Luke 12:32,33)
Here Jesus said to “sell that you have…”. He is not saying to sell EVERYTHING that you
have. A more literal translation is “sell of that which you
have.” This literally means, “to be busy, trade, barter, sell
whatever things are in your hand.”
Again, He is not saying to sell
everything that you have and give it away. He is saying, “Surely you
have something that you can sell, trade or barter in order to get some
seed.”
Today we might call that “a garage
sale.” Go through the house. Find everything you have that you
no longer need or are not using and put it out in the driveway with a For
Sale sign. If you make $100, give God His $10 tithe plus a $90 offering.
Then get ready for a miracle. If
you make $20, give God His $2 tithe plus an $18 offering, and expect as big
a miracle as you would had you been able to give
that $90 offering.
It is not based on the amount given. It is
based on the percentage given over and above the tithe. If you only
make $20 and you give an $18 offering, it is the same to God as if you had
made $100 and gave a $90 offering over and above your $10 tithe.
The
Laws of Sowing and Reaping are not based upon the amount given.
The
Laws of Sowing and Reaping are based upon the percentage given over and
above the tithe. Jesus said this. Not me.
“And Jesus sat over against the treasury,
and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were
rich [wealthy] cast in much [large amounts]. And there came a certain
poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing [1/4
cent]. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith
unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in,
than all they [combined] which have cast into the treasury: For all
they did cast in of their abundance [excess]; but she of her want [falling
short] did cast in all that she had, even all her living [livelihood].”
(Mark 12:41-44)
How in the world could Jesus say that ¼
penny was more than the small combined fortune that the rich people were
dropping into the Treasury? This is because the Laws of Sowing and
Reaping are based on percentages, not solely on the amount given.
I once had a quarter, a nickel and a penny
to my name. It was literally all the money I had in the world.
My tithe on that 26 cents was 2.6 cents.
That left me with 23.4 cents. I decided to give the Lord all 23.4
cents as an offering over and above my tithe.
Within one week’s time
the Lord moved on two individuals. One sent me a $400 check.
The other sent me sixteen $50 bills. God did this for me not based
upon how much I had given. God did this for me based upon the
percentage I had given over and above my tithe.
You simply cannot be a blessing until you
have been blessed. You will never be blessed the way God wants to
bless you, until you get a hold of the power of percentages. You do
not have to understand fully all of the wonderful financial revelation that
has come into the Earth through the “Preachers in cowboy boots.” I
say this respectfully. They are my Mentors. I wear cowboy
boots. You just have to understand and utilize the power of
percentages to become wealthy.
Combine this with the understanding of why
money comes and you will be well on your way to becoming one of the biggest
tithe payers and offering givers in your realm of influence.
You do
remember why money comes, don’t you?
Money comes to establish God’s Salvation-based Covenant in the Earth.
Money comes to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)
Money comes
to destroy the works of the devil. (1John 3:8)
Money comes that you
might live a life of abundance, thereby becoming a testimony of God’s
goodness to His family. (John 10:10)
Jesus said, “So is the kingdom of God, as
if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night
and day, and the seed should spring and grow up [enlarge and bear fruit],
he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then
the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is
brought forth, immediately he putteth in the
sickle, because the harvest is come.” (Mark 4:26-29)
Everything God does, He does according to
His miraculous seed planting principle.
Everything God does, He does
according to seed, time and harvest.
This includes the realm of
finances, as well. It is just God’s way.
God has declared in His Word that He has
given us “power to get wealth.” This power is actually the power of tithes and offerings.
(Deuteronomy 8:18)
The tithe determines your obedience before
God. The offering determines your rate of return from God. Just
ask Jesus, the Apostle Paul, R.G. LeTourneau, the
founders of some of the world’s most profitable corporations and so many,
many others.
Get in on God’s supernatural financial
action. Make application of the supernatural power of
percentages. Give it a whirl. God said it was all right to test
Him and prove Him concerning finances.
"Will
a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed
Thee? In tithes and offerings... Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse
(the local Church), and prove Me now herewith sayeth 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 3:8-10)
In
one of his many visions of the Lord Jesus Christ, Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin said
Jesus told him, "If you will learn to follow the Inward Witness, I will
help you in all the affairs of your life. If My children will listen
to Me, I will make them wealthy. I am not opposed to their being rich,
I am only opposed to their being covetous." ("I Believe in
Visions" pg. 117)
Follow
the Inner Witness of the Holy Spirit in all
the affairs of life, including giving, and He will take you places you have
never been before.
Be blessed … John and Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power
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