Bringing our Offerings to God

Are You Ready: Part 9

In the last instalment, we considered the practice of tithing  (the tithe meaning tenth), which was introduced and instituted by God for the Israelites to support the Levites, priests, and the needy. It was a covenant obligation, designed as an act of worship to show gratitude for God’s provision and to ensure a social safety net.
 
Yet tithing was just one way of giving in the Old Testament. The other way was to bring a sacrifice, an offering to God. Whereas the tithe is not a part of Father’s character (He has never given just 10% of Himself to us), sacrificial giving most definitely is.

Sacrifice

He gives us 100% of Himself because He gives freely, generously and abundantly above and beyond all we could ask or ever imagine. And by offering His only Son, Jesus Christ, He gave sacrificially. The giving of sacrificial offerings is the type of giving we see modelled in the New Testament.

The Pharisees were religious in their giving; they followed the rules to give a precise 10% of even their tiniest herbs; but their hearts did not reflect Father’s heart of love and generosity towards the poor and needy.

The Pharisees were religious in their giving; ... but their hearts did not reflect Father’s heart of love and generosity towards the poor and needy.

The early Christians were commended for giving sacrificially (often out of their poverty) to meet the physical needs of both the poor and the itinerant teachers and preachers of the gospel, such as Paul. In fact, they were doing what the tithe had been intended to do but were directed by the Holy Spirit and the Father’s heart rather than by a rigid calculation.

Following the Spirit’s leading

Paul was not embarrassed to make his needs known and it seems that some groups were mean-spirited even then! Paul also exhorted congregations to give freely and generously to one another, but he never used manipulation, exerted pressure or coercion; they always gave out of the overflow of love that Father God had poured into their hearts. (Please see Matthew 19:21; Mark 12:41-44; John 3:16; Acts 2:45; 1 Corinthians 9:11-14; 2 Corinthians 8:2-3; 9:6-7; 12:14; Galatians 2:10; 6:8; Philippians 4:15-18; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; 6:17-19.) 

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18).

Father wants us to be as open and dependent on the leading of the Holy Spirit in our financial giving as we are in every other aspect of life and ministry. In many ways, giving a straight tithe into the same ministry month after month is taking the easy option, especially when we do it by standing order, because we do not necessarily have to think (or pray) too much; we can sit back, relax and enjoy the remaining 90% ourselves because our responsibility to give something financially has been taken care of. Right?

Wrong! Poor teaching in the wealthier western Church has led to a real imbalance in Messiah’s Body across the world: some tithing believers (and some ministry leaders) earn huge amounts of money and enjoy luxury lifestyles whilst some in those congregations, even those who have given sacrificially, suffer on the edge of poverty.  Meanwhile, many kingdom projects that have been birthed in the heart of God go unfulfilled for lack of finance.

Responsible giving

It is much harder to open our hearts after pay-day each month and, having set aside enough to cover our essential needs (food, household bills, etc.) plus a modest contingency sum, to then offer up the remainder to the Holy Spirit saying, “Now show me what You want me to do with the rest”. This really is living on the edge by faith!

“On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made” (1 Corinthians 16:2).
“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Paul does not advocate haphazard or whimsical financial giving but rather thoughtful, deliberate, systematic, pre-determined, purposeful and responsible giving.

Paul does not advocate haphazard or whimsical financial giving but rather thoughtful, deliberate, systematic, pre-determined, purposeful and responsible giving. We settle on what we are to give (it could even be a percentage) then carefully set it aside from the rest of our money so that it will not be spent in the common purse but be available to be given as directed by the Spirit. Then we must obediently either give whatever we have allotted or by faith trust God for what He asks us to give: to give more is disobedience but to give less is also disobedience.

Spiritual storehouses

It is like putting our financial seed or produce into a spiritual storehouse rather than a physical one but with the same purpose: to supply for those who cannot support themselves, including full-time teachers and preachers, the poor and the needy.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
“And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.’” (Luke 12:16-21).

Any natural storehouse has a limited lifespan; it is temporal, earthly. In today’s terms, it cost millions of pounds not only to construct the Temple but also to rebuild it twice. But it was not an eternal investment. One day, even our stylish, new, multi-purpose church centres and warehouses will have outlived their usefulness, especially once persecution forces us to operate underground. That day could come sooner than we think. We need to think and pray very hard about what we sow, the resources Father has entrusted us with into, and ask ourselves the question: “Is this eternal or temporal?”

A storehouse is not an excuse to hoard: it is just a collection point from where things that have come in go out again. Therefore, a spiritual storehouse is not a building or a bank account but the work of the kingdom of God.

Reflections

• Think: Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about your attitude towards giving: Do you ever give cheerfully? Are there things you are holding on to that the Lord is asking you to release? Why might that be? Are you scared of where this challenge might lead you?
• Talk to God about your financial giving. If you tithe, are you going to continue tithing to the same place(s)? If not, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you are to restructure your giving into the kingdom.
• If you do not tithe, are you truly open to follow the Spirit’s promptings to give where He directs? Is there anything you have to do to set in place a spiritual storehouse? How might that work?

Global financial instability and dangers

As we continue to contemplate the challenge Jesus faces us with in the parables of the talents and minas that we have looked at over the last couple of weeks, we must do so in the knowledge that the world’s economy is extremely volatile; the banking and financial systems are increasingly unstable. The strongest world economy since the 2008 financial collapse has been China’s – but that is now heading for crisis. If China’s economy suffers then others will follow like dominoes. An uncertain outcome for Brexit has resulted in growing political and social unrest, partly in fear of unstable economic outcomes, and such instability has only increased since COVID-19 and the escalation of conflicts in both the Ukraine/Russia and the current escalation in the Middle East that is ongoing at the time of writing. It is not an exaggeration to suggest we could see riots over food and fuel shortages on our streets before long.

The concept of programmable Central Bank Digital Currency (C.B.D.C.) introduces the practical means for a state not only to control access to the money we hold in banks and building societies, but also to restrict its use, or control the type of purchases for which it may be used. In Britain, this has taken a step closer to becoming a reality now that C.B.D.C. introduction is being examined by the Bank of England. 

For us as believers, it may not always be possible to use the existing banking systems, which may at some point require us to be microchipped or which could require us to take a mark of some sort in order to access our own money.

The potential implementation of the mark of the beast is now a very real and present danger.

To some, this still seems an unlikely development, yet the means to use biometric technology to verify financial transactions via wi-fi or 4/5G already exists. Unnoticed by many, the Microsoft Corporation filed patent number WO2020060606 on March 26th, 2020. The patent was headed Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data. Human body activity associated with a task provided to a user may be used in a mining process of a cryptocurrency system. The potential implementation of the mark of the beast is now a very real and present danger.

For Christian charities there is another layer of danger: many are accustomed to having unrestricted access to money donated to them with the benefit of Gift Aid. As the world’s economic system continues to be judged by God, there might well come a point where those who have unwittingly partnered with it through the Gift Aid scheme suddenly find themselves being required to pay back some of what they have been given. Refusal of such a demand could immediately see a charity forfeit its monetary resources and a form of persecution ensue.

Pension pots, ISAs and other investments – what is God saying?

All of this leaves us with the very real challenge to consider wisely ahead of time exactly what King Jesus might be saying to us regarding any financial investments, ISAs or pension pots we may have and any kingdom-funding gifts we may want to give.

Nick Szkiler tells a story relating to a challenge given to a person of wealth immediately prior to the banking collapse of September 2008. Apparently, the person was challenged by the Lord to give away a certain very large sum of money. Obviously, the person had the means to do this, but even to someone of wealth, it was still a huge amount and required a great leap of faith. The person questioned God repeatedly over the challenge and then failed to implement it.

Scripture tells us plainly that the Early Church radically shared and disposed of their worldly assets among the believing community.

The day of the collapse of Lehman Brothers arrived, Sept 15th, 2008, which was immediately followed by the worldwide collapse of the financial system. The result for the man of wealth was that in one moment he lost the exact amount of money from his financial portfolio that the Lord had challenged him to previously give away! The point of this true story is that, as a believer, it was not his money but the Lord’s, and its ‘owner’ knew that it could be put to work for the sake of His kingdom, rather than be lost as it was.

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (Acts 2:44-45).
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had” (Acts 4:32).

Scripture tells us plainly that the Early Church radically shared and disposed of their worldly assets among the believing community. Let us be certain, everything we hold dear – everything that comprises our society as we know it – will be shaken, and that includes our financial assets and resources.

Think: How does what is written in this section apply to you? Are you being challenged to surrender the hold you have on your personal resources and place them completely at God’s disposal whilst you still have control of them? What might this mean for you practically?

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