In my last message entitled, "THE BORROWER IS SUBJECT TO THE LENDER," I wrote about the reason for tithing and gift giving and how God looks at it. In this message I want to write about why the tithe and offerings principle works. Many people don't realize there is life in the money we give to the work of the Lord just as there is life in a grain of corn that is planted in the ground.
If we take the grain of corn and eat it, our body reaps the benefit of it but the life in the grain of corn is gone forever. If you set the grain of corn aside and never plant it, the life is still in it but the life in it is not being utilized and therefore it does no one any good. Or, you can plant the grain of corn in the ground, water it, and let the sun shine on the place you planted it, and pretty soon a corn plant will burst through the soil and a short time later produce two or three ears of corn. And each one of those ears of corn will produce from two to three hundred grains of corn. Thus you have anywhere from a six hundred to a nine hundred percent increase on that single grain of corn.
If you use ninety percent of those grains to meet your needs and plant the other ten percent; you will reap about ninety ears of corn, each producing from two to three hundred grains of corn per ear, and if you repeat the process over again the following growing season, keeping ninety percent of the harvest to meet your needs and planting the other ten percent; it won't be long until you will have a big field of corn. And if you plan on repeating the process very many times you will have to buy more land and more land.
This is the life principle God placed in the grain of corn when He made it. If it is planted and cared for; it will grow and produce. It cannot but do what God has commanded it to do. Let us understand; the purpose in life for the grain of corn is to produce an increase. Are you with me?
The same multiplying factor God placed in the grain of corn is the same multiplying factor He has placed in our tithing and gift giving. If we plant the grain of corn, it will produce more corn. It cannot deny itself. If we tithe and give gifts in the name of the Lord, it will multiply just as the grain of corn multiplies itself.
Whatever is planted in God's Kingdom produces after its kind according to the multiplying factor God has placed in it. It is a law God set in motion when He created the earth. Now let's listen in as God explains this plant and harvest principle to us in Malachi 3:10-11.
"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this" says the Lord of Hosts. (The planting phase) "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (The multiplying factor) And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," says the Lord of Hosts; and all nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says the Lord of Hosts."
(This is God's way of telling us no one can prevent the tithe from fulfilling its purpose anymore than they can stop the grain of corn from growing and reproducing after it has been planted.) There is life in our tithe the same as there is life in the grain of corn. If we plant it, it will grow and reproduce according to the multiplying factor God has placed in it. It cannot help but do what God has commanded it to do.
Did you know God put an example of His multiplying factor of the things we give to Him in the Gospel of John chapter six? In this story Jesus uses a little boys lunch of five loaves and two fish to feed some twenty thousand people. Now let's follow the course of events in this demonstration that allowed this increase to take place.
The little boy gave his lunch to the disciples who in turn gave it to the Lord, who received it, looked up to heaven, blessed it, broke it, returned it to His disciples, who in turn gave it to the twenty thousand people present, and when they had eaten all they wanted, the disciples picked up the left overs and gave them to the little boy who went home with several baskets full of fish and bread.
Do you see the multiplying factor God placed in the grain of corn working in the little boys lunch? The little boy planted, the Lord applied the multiplying factor and all of the people's needs were met, and the little boy harvested many times more than he planted. The only difference between the planting of the grain of corn and the little boy planting his lunch is that God shows us how fast this multiplication factor can take place in the spiritual realm where there are no natural barriers to its reproduction.
The people's needs were immediate, So Jesus gave them immediate relief, but only enough to meet their temporary need. The one that received the most was the little boy who gave. He went home with enough to feed him and his family for some time.
The people who receive of our tithes and offering receive on a temporary basis only. They receive enough to meet their immediate needs, but our return on our tithe is far greater because we did the planting or giving. Therefore their needs are met, but we receive the blessing of the increase on our gifts so we can keep planting and receiving.
Do you see how the process works? The little boy gave to the disciples, the disciples gave to the Lord, the Lord received it, blessed it, broke it, gave it back to the disciples, who gave it to the crowd, retrieved all the left overs and gave them back to the the little boy as a return on his gift.
The parishioner gives to the church, who gives to the missionary, who gives to the needy who has their needs met. And the Lord blesses every phase of the tithe until it is returned unto the hand of the giver. The farmer gives or sowes his crops to the earth, the earth blesses the grain with nutrients, a body or plant is formed, the body or plant gives or produces the blessing of the head or ears, and the farmer reaps his reward at harvest time.
Through every phase of every work in God's kingdom there is a giver, a blessor, a receptor of that blessing, and a harvest time for the sower. To further prove this point; Jesus, said, in [Luke 6:38] "Give (or plant) and it shall be given unto you (harvest time) good measure, pressed down, and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure you give out, it shall be measured back to you."
Brothers and sisters, Jesus couldn't have made it any plainer than He did with that statement. Everything in God's creation works on this sowing and harvesting principle. If we do not give, (plant a seed) we cannot expect a return. (a harvest) Paul wrote of this in [2 Corinthians 9:6] "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." Another way of saying this is: "He who sows nothing reaps nothing."
If we are still having a hard time understanding how tithing works, lets' use one more example of the multiplying factor in the plant and harvest principle of tithing and gift giving. Man was lost and without hope in this world. Man was in dire straits and there was no one to help him. So God tithed or planted His Son Jesus Christ in this world, (Jesus explained this in John 3:16) and when His time was fulfilled, He produced one hundred and twenty people who gathered in an upper room above the home of the mother of John Mark.
On harvest day, (the Day of Pentecost) the Holy Spirit (the harvester) filled those one hundred and twenty people with Himself, (A 120% increase.) And one of them stood up to preach and three thousands souls were added to the kingdom of God that day. (A 3000% increase.) A few days later, that same person stood up and preached again and another five thousand souls were added to the kingdom. (A 5000% increase) If my figures are correct the kingdom of God increased by 8,120% in just one week when one man planted God's Word in Israel.
The harvested (the saved) went and preached the message of Christ around the world; and today there are hundreds of millions of saved souls in the world because God planted or tithed His Son in the earth two thousand years ago. There is life in the tithe that the church has never understood and I have never heard preached.
The same laws that apply to the natural realm apply to the supernatural. If we eat or use up what we have been given - it cannot reproduce; it is gone forever. If we plant it - it will reproduce and increase exponentially in just a matter of time. We understand natural grains have a set time before they can be harvested, but things in the spiritual realm have no such barrier as is shown in the example where Jesus fed the twenty thousand people from a little boys lunch of five fish and two loaves of bread.
The little boy planted and reaped a harvest the same day, and Peter preached to the multitudes on the Day of Pentecost and three thousand people were added to the kingdom that very day. What Jesus did for them; He will do for us.
OTBP
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