Light and Easy Ministries
--Matthew 11:30
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--Matthew 11:30 |
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January 28, 2001
Monica,
I hope you like having me pass my thoughts your way. As I said, I have not had anyone to bounce thoughts off lately.
On January 24, I wrote about the outward to inner approach and the inner to outward approach to change. I think I might have sounded as though all that comes from the outside in is from the devil. I did not mean that. I only meant that the devil is limited to the outward senses when he attacks us. It is as Paul said: physical exercise profits a little. The truth is that your body is more affected by what you are confessing about your body than by what you do to your body. This is why God does not want to just sovereignly heal everybody in their bodies without the spiritual part being healthy first. Get healed in your body, and your body can get sick again. Get healed from the inside out, and the health will endure. That is not to say we won’t age. The body is aging, but we can be healthy into old age.
Watch what you say. You can’t decide whether or not to live under the order of words, but you can decide what words to live under.
To change the subject just a little, today I again heard a preacher on TBN spouting that teaching about how we are stealing from God if we don’t tithe. Then they like to say, “Don’t get mad at me. God said it, not me.” That sounds so spiritual, but it is a lie because it is out of context. The devil quotes the Bible for his own purposes.
When you deal with money, I hope you can give what God tells you to give to what or whom God tells you to give it when God tells you to give it because God told you personally to give it--not because some well-meaning preacher put Old Testament law on you.
For people who are not comfortable with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I would say give the tithe (which means 10%); give twice the tithe. In fact, I believe we are supposed to literally give ten times the tithe in the new covenant (Romans 12:1). However, the giving is for the purpose of keeping the flow going. God breathed into man. If man had not breathed back, he would have died right there.
There are two principles for giving. The first is that without a flowing we become as the dead sea. Without the money flowing, our finances become a pecuniary dead sea. That principle applies to everything. There has to be a healthy flow. The second principle is sowing and reaping. I am sure you are aware of both these principles already.
Why do I care about the false teaching about robbing God in the tithe? I care because it robs Christians of the joy of giving as God leads. The New Testament is so clear in stating that we are not under the law. How can we be accused of robbing God if there is no written law in our covenant? In addition to that, we are not just God’s chosen people as the Israelites were, living by a written code. We are God’s kids. Don’t tell God’s kids they have to pay a tithe according to the written law. Yet another point is that we are a royal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews teaches that Jesus is the high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, and we are Jesus’ brothers. Priests did not pay the tithe even under the law.
Now what happened is that Satan first succeeded in getting the early Gentile Christians to forget about giving since they where not under the law to do so. This robbed them of prosperity--not because of the law, but because of the principles of sowing and reaping and of flowing. Then when men started reading the Bible again in John Wesley’s day, Christians saw that there was a blessing associated with the tithe. Satan lost the advantage of keep us from generous giving, but he was not going to let us have the full joy of giving as the Holy Spirit guides us to give. No, he quickly brought confusion between the principle Abraham learned about keeping God’s blessings flowing and the law. 1 Corinthians 6:12 (KJV) All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV) “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
This truth is repeated in 1 Corinthians 10:23. It is not expedient for us to hoard the prosperity that God is trying to flow through us.
Ironically, spouters of the “robbing God” teaching say we are under a curse if we attend their church but don’t pay them a tithe. Yet Galatians 3:10 says it is the opposite. “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse.”
Studying the old testament law can give us insight into truth, but be led by the Holy Spirit in all things. Don’t let anyone put you back under the law.
I completely believe we are called to give 100% of ourselves, including all money and property to God. Then let him live through us and give what he wants where he wants. I do not believe giving God 10% is good enough for us under the new covenant although we are only urged to give ourselves--not placed under a law to give. Never has the building that Christians meet in been called God’s house by God himself. And never have we been placed under a law to bring our tithe into God’s house--which pastors want to believe is their building. For Christians God’s house is the bodies we live in with God. I have never gone out of God’s house since I became born again.
If you study the tithe in the law, it included giving the firstborn male child to God. Again, I gave 100%; I gave both of my children to God before they could roll over. That is why both of you turned out to be such wonderful Christians. I always was fully persuaded that I am your brother in Christ and God is your father--though he did much of his fathering through this vessel.
I know you have already given yourself to him. Give generously, but only as the Holy Spirit tells you to give. You will be giving in faith instead of by law; that will make you a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful giver for that same reason. Without faith it is impossible to please God. (2 Corinthians 9:7 and Hebrews 11:6)
I will stop here before I launch out into the subject of Sabbath rest. Oh, I can’t resist. I will say it simply: We are not under the law. The law was a shadow. Jesus is the reality. Jesus is our Sabbath rest, and we don’t just rest in that Sabbath one day a week. As with all the Christian walk, it is 100%. Rest in the Sabbath twenty-four hours a day, seven days every week. Jesus Christ our Lord is the Sabbath rest.
Love, Dad |
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