Your Opportunity To Increase
Your Increase Opportunity
by Tiger Todd,
Do you sometimes feel alone in the universe? Do you go through “dry spells” when you feel like you’re disconnected from God? During these times, does fear, uneasiness, a lack of confidence, or that feeling of being alone wear down your faith and self-esteem?
If it feels like the spiritual river that once flowed through you has suddenly dried up at the source, you are not alone. I know a few people who are “up” all the time, but the rest of us occasionally whine through the Valley of Death more often than we would like to admit. What do you tell people who are in the “Valley?” Is there an antidote for this affliction?
I suppose one solution would be to recite a list of nice affirmations while smiling dorkishly into a mirror, a la Stewart Smalley. Say this in a confident voice, “I am fun to be with, because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
Well, not everybody. But I guess that’s their problem. And it is still your problem. How do you feel now? No better? Darn.
How about a pint… of Ben & Jerry’s? No? I guess that won’t help us feel more spiritual either.
Then maybe what we need are more scripture readings…yes, that’s it! Perhaps if we read scriptures about how merciful and loving God is, we’ll feel like we’re back in the game. That will make everything O.K.
Or will it?
When we feel like we’ve lost our divine connection, we don’t need more information about how nice a divine connection would be. And we don’t need to reminisce about the past times when we use to be able to “walk on water.” What we really need is a way to reconnect…to the universe, to the divine, to God.
This morning, I found one. I (re) discovered the way to make a confident, faith-filled connection to our spiritual source and it didn’t involve any incense, affirmations, mirrors, pints, fire walking, Sufi dancing, or chanting…well almost.
After gaining some discretionary income- and some garage space- the other day from a garage sale, I sat down to figure-out how much the tithe was. You know, the first tenth part that the Bible teaches is to be returned to God after all of our increase?
“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD.” Leviticus 27:30
You may get the idea from my writing that doing the will of God is always my first thought- and it is. But it is not always my first action. The length of time between my good intentions and any action is directly proportional to the desperateness of my need. I’m not proud of this tendency toward lethargy and procrastination, but I am what I have to work with! On this day, early in the morning, I was facing some tough issues for which I needed some spiritual guidance, yet my every request to God didn’t seem to be going any higher than the ceiling. I felt out of touch with heaven, and disconnected from my source of supply. So on this particular day, I was serious about crossing every “t” and dotting every lower-case “j”, spiritually speaking.
Back to the tithe. According to the Old Testament, the tithe is defined as the first tenth part of all of our increase. I know, it’s not too difficult to calculate 10% of anything, especially in the high-finance world of garage sales! It also means that anyone in the Bible could calculate the tithe, so no one had an excuse not to. I’ve also heard in church services that ten percent of what we have belongs to God- or in these particular services, their church. But that is not what God said in the Bible. He/She/They clearly said that it is the first fruits, the increase, that is important, meaning that if one has not had increase, one does not owe a tithe:
“Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
Proverbs 3:9-10
In Robert Kiyosaki’s best seller, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the author explains how his “Rich Dad” taught him that if you want God as a partner in your affairs, you need to include him in the profits! It is not that God needs the money. It is rather we who need to remember our Partner.
“Uh, pastor, I thought you were supposed to be telling us how to get reconnected to God, to hear from Heaven and feel spiritual again.” Hold your horses- I’m just about there!
Anyway, when I tithe, I like to read two important scriptures that refer to the tithe, Deuteronomy 26, and Malachi 3. Let’s begin with chapter 26 of Deuteronomy.
“And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee…that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.”
Deuteronomy 26:1-2
Right. We covered the increase and the return part. Keep reading:
“And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God…” Deuteronomy 26:5
“Say” before the LORD? There is apparently something we are supposed to say to God, as if we are supposed to begin a conversation with Him/Her/Them. Isn’t that where this message began, with those times when we feel so disconnected from the divine that we don’t know if our words are being heard in the heavens?
The next verses are an account of the tither in Deuteronomy 26 tithing the tithe. Let’s review: the tithe is the stuff, the tither is the one who has had some increase, and tithing is this conversation we are to initiate with God for all of the good things in our life. Literally, tithing is the statement of gratitude we say over the tithe when we bring it to God, and it is this process that demonstrates to God how serious we are about our covenant.
“Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice.” Deuteronomy 26:17
So there I was with my $70.00 tithe, my scriptures, and my need to reconnect to God. I began reciting to God a few of the impossible situations that I had experienced during the course of my life, and how I had been delivered out of them all. I continued with how even my failures had been turned into learning experiences through the wisdom of God, and how grateful I was that I wasn’t the same person that I was then. But it’s what happened next that sent the shivers down my spine…
All of a sudden, the great distance that once existed between heaven and the room I was in was reduced to a span no farther than the distance from a whisper to my ear! It was as if the barriers that were preventing contact with God had suddenly been removed, as if by invisible cranes and rigging. Look at what happens in Deuteronomy 26 when the tither finishes his statement of gratitude:
“And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee.” Deuteronomy 26:18
God speaks! Communication has been restored! A connection has been made! And more than that, what God is saying is what we want to hear! God says, “By tithing, you have shown me that I indeed am your God, so I want you know that I consider you My People.” And that’s not all…
“And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee… to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken. ” Deuteronomy 26:18-19
Talk about confidence! How much confidence would you have this week if you heard from God personally, and that you were considered His/Her/Their people? This must have been what Joshua was going through after the death of Moses. For so many years, Moses was the only one to whom God would both speak and supply with the power to heal lepers and part seas. Everyone went to Moses in his or her time of need, including Joshua. But one day, Joshua found himself in charge, and without the self-confidence to take over the position where Moses once stood. Joshua had to feel like we do when the responsibilities of life, whether our children, our jobs, our education, or even God’s mission, land squarely on our shoulders. “How can I do what I must?”
“There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of the life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Joshua 1:5
And that’s when it hit me- tithing was never about cutting a check to God but about participating in a divinely ordained experience where we can know that God has heard us!
“And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” I John 5:15
TWO Benefits
As many of you have heard in sermons on tithing, much of the benefits have to do with the blessings of the tither. “If you give,” they might say, “then God will bless you, and your barns will be filled with plenty.”
“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
I just believe there is more to being blessed than increased income. Did you know that the words “there shall”, “be room”, and “to receive it” were added by the English translators of the Bible and do not appear in he original language, Hebrew? Let me adjust the verse without adding the translators’ CNN/Fox News-style spin:
“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, and that’s not all.” Malachi 3:10b
Why did I change the translation to “That’s not all?” Because there’s more! Just look at the next verse!
“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.” Malachi 3:11
It is one thing to have the windows of heaven open over us so that blessings continuously flow into our lives. It is quite another, however, when God promises to personally deal with whatever forces might ever try to prevent us from prospering! It’s kind of like “the Navy Seals meets State Farm Insurance.” There were years when my businesses had great income, but the outgo through theft, late fees, employee trouble, and repairs were even greater! I needed to tithe and I had worked myself into a position where I didn’t have any increase.
TITHE BY FAITH
I’ve got to tell you what I did, especially now that I have a better picture myself of how tithing was designed by God as a way that any person can proactively connect to the divine. At the time, I was living on the loose change in my truck’s ashtray- a can of tuna a day. Although I had read the scriptures on tithing, I always made an excuse to God as to why I couldn’t tithe; after all, I didn’t have any increase. But I saw the words in Malachi, “Prove me now herewith,” and I set out to prove them true. I decided that I would be happy if I could make $300/week. How much would the tithe be? Thirty dollars. Well, I hadn’t been able to put $300 together at any one time, but surely I could assemble $30! And I did. Then I spoke over it, telling God that I was trusting Him for this tithing stuff to work. I then dutifully delivered the money to different churches, or in the form of food to people on the street. It didn’t take a week and a half to get the first $300! So I increased the tithe and my income shot up again! But remember, there is a secondary benefit.
My store was only burglarized once more and nothing was stolen. The first four years of my store on Tropicana without tithing: 23 burglaries. The last 4 years: only one.
Do you think I was convinced that tithing was for real? You’d better believe it. But only recently have I seen God’s intention of a divine connection. Tithing was not designed by God to be about me. Tithing was a way to communicate with heaven with peace and confidence in the midst of a world that is anything but peaceful. Look at Jesus’ tithing statement to God regarding his disciples:
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” John 17:15
I rest my case.
If we, God’s heroes in this generation, were taken out of this world as some reward for our obedience, what good would it do the rest of the world we have been sent to help? So God- our boss and our heavenly father- gave us a way to not only survive, but to succeed and excel against the negative forces around us. When we need help, answers, confidence, or just some contact with the source of our life, we just have to ask.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
Practice tithing. Remember how you’ve grown, what’s good in your life, and how glad you are to be alive, beginning each conversation you desire to have with God in gratitude. And when you return the firstfruits of your increase, in time, money, goods or friendship, thank God for the blessings and protection he has made available so that you can be free to live the life your were meant to live.
And may all nations call you blessed.
TT
The Las Vegas Faith Center