The Tithe – Luke 6:38

“Give, and it will be given to you; Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will men give unto you. For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you.”

We must learn to manage our finances by heaven’s economics. The basis of God’s financial system is, “Give, and it will be given to you”. Remember that God is love (1John 4:8), and Love (God) so loved the world, that He gave. He gave Himself – His very best – His only begotten Son. It was the greatest gift of all time, given in God’s intense, unconditional covenant to redeem fallen mankind. When the Son of His love died in your place on Calvary’s Cross, He had you on His mind.

When you act on The Word of God and give from a heart of love for God, who so loved you and all of mankind (John 3:16), the desires of your heart will begin to grow and line up with God’s desires (Philippians 2:13). He causes all grace to abound toward you (2Corinthians 9:8). But the first step is to get your mind off yourself and your needs. Begin to take up the needs of the Body of Christ as if they were your own. The Word states very plainly that if someone comes to you needing food and clothing, you’re not to just pray and send him or her away cold and hungry (James 2:15-16). Feed and clothe the person (Matthew 25:31-45).

When you are living by Luke 6:38, God will not just meet your needs according to your job or other source of income. Businessmen have said the laws of prosperity work only for me because I am a preacher, but I know preachers everywhere for whom it’s not working. Some have said, “But I don’t have the opportunity for people to give to me. I’m not out preaching. People don’t think of me when they give. I have to work for mine.”

God didn’t make His covenant with a preacher. He made it with a farmer, a working man named Abram. In Genesis 14:23 Abram turned to the Sodomite king and said, “I don’t even want the string from your sandal because you could say a man made Abram rich.” No man made Abraham rich. God made him rich. This needs to be our attitude. We must do it His way.

The basic principle of God to supply the Body of Christ and allow the Body of Christ to supply the world is summed up in Ecclesiastes 11:1: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” Give, and after a while, it will come back to you again. You must begin “casting your bread” sometime – tomorrow will never do. And you can’t wait until your bread comes back before you cast it out. Many who are waiting for their “ship to come in” have never sent one out! Things don’t work that way. It would be like saying to a stove, “Give me some heat, and I’ll put in some wood.” No, The Word says you give, and then it will be given to you. The key is to give continually. As you continue walking in The Word, and God’s prosperity is being produced in your life, you will reach a point when your bread is coming back to you on every wave! It is your job to put it on the water. It is God’s job to see that it comes back. If you do your job and let God do His, then you will be continually receiving. The more you give, the more you will receive. The more you get, the more you will have to give. God intended for these things to work this way. When you get to this point, more will be coming in than you can give away!

If you have more faith in your job and your own ability to work than you have in The Word of God, then these things will definitely not work for you. God will certainly use what’s available in your job to bless you, and He’ll even get you a better one. But He’s not limited to supplying through your job or other income source, unless you limit Him to it.

There is a fundamental truth that runs throughout the Bible in God’s history of dealing with man. Every time there was a need, no matter what it was, God had someone, somewhere, who had the resources to meet the need – spiritual, physical, or financial. For Israel, there was Moses. For the world, there was Jesus. For Jesus, there was a man with a donkey. For Ephesus, there was Paul. Ephesians 4:11 says God gave gifts to men – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He has someone He can use to help supply every need. No one person will ever be so spiritual he doesn’t need others. We all need one another. And as you bless others, God will use others to bless you.

Expand your vision. Begin to include the Body of Christ and the lost in your needs. If someone were to come to you needing clothes, and you had no clothes to give, both of you would be in trouble. You need clothes for yourself, and you need to be able to supply others with clothes. Jesus said, “Take no thoughts, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?… For you heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32). But He also said, “Give, and it will be given to you: Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will men give unto you. For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you” (Luke 6:38).

When I realized this and began considering the needs of others before my own, I found my needs were met supernaturally. I had spent nearly all my adult life in debt. It seemed every business venture I tried just fell apart, leaving me even further in debt. I finally turned to The Lord, determined to commit myself to His Word. I began walking my bedroom floor with my Bible in my hands, shouting at the top of my voice, “My God meets all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)!” I kept confessing this hour after hour, day after day. My situation looked absolutely impossible at the time. I had no place to preach and nothing much to say except, of course, Philippians 4:19. But as I learned to include other people in my needs by giving to and getting involved with them, eleven months later I was completely out of debt. When I began to give, I suddenly realized one day how very busy I was with God’s work. Years have come and gone, and I haven’t caught up yet. When you live this way, supplying the needs of others and believing God to bless you so you can be a blessing, God will move heaven and earth, if necessary, to supply your needs.

Kenneth Copeland Study Bible

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