WHERE SHOULD I GIVE?

“The person who is taught God's word should share all good things with his teacher. Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you'll harvest. If you plant in [the soil of] your corrupt nature, you will harvest destruction. But if you plant in [the soil of] your spiritual nature, you will harvest everlasting life.” Gal6:6-8 GW. GOD

a)      Give where you are fed

Have you ever bought chips at Javas and gone to pay for it at Steers? Of course not. You give where you are fed!

“The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Gal6:6-9

Most Christians give where they are begged and not where they are fed. Most of us only give to those ministries/churches/ministers who beg us and those in trouble. When you have a ministry or minister that is ministering to you and feeding you, you are obligated by scripture to sow some of your finances and other material things back into them.

This helps to meet the needs of that minister or ministry and also ensures that they will be able to continue ministering to you in the future.

Mal3:10 “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, " If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it” NKJV

We should give where we are being fed the Word of God. It is not proper to be fed the Word in one place and give our tithe and offerings in another place. The storehouse is where food was stored.
In our context, it is where we are fed the Word of God and ministered to and built up. Ideally that should be our local church. HOWEVER this is not always the case. Many of us go to churches where we are not being fed the Word, we go there for other purposes but are being fed somewhere else. Give the bulk of your finances where you are being fed.

God said to bring the tithe AND the offerings to the storehouse. If your church is not feeding and ministering you don’t tithe there, find another church where you will be fed and ministered to and tithe there.

If for whatever reason you can’t leave a church that is not feeding you and ministering to you then don’t give the bulk of your finances there. Give where you are fed and ministered to, that is your storehouse! Feeding in one place & giving in another is like ordering for ice cream in Javas and then going to Fido-dido to pay for it! It is theft!

If we all quit giving where we were being begged, threatened & manipulated and instead started giving only where we were being fed there would be tremendous changes. For starters those churches/ministries and ministers that are feeding God’s people would thrive and have more meaningful impact in their communities and in the nations.

Secondly, those that are not feeding the people of God would simply collapse. We would get rid of all these fake preachers, false prophets & businessmen and conmen on pulpits. They would go look for another business to do.

b)      The poor you shall have with you always

1Kings10
2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones… 10 Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great quantity, and precious stones. There never again came such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon

Do you think there were no poor and needy people in Ethiopia? Why did the queen of Sheba come and give all of those riches to Solomon instead of giving them to the poor and needy among her subjects?

Solomon didn’t need her stuff. He was the wealthiest man in the world. And yet she gave him a lot of wealth.
It was a necessary investment she needed to make. She knew that if she met him and gleaned his wisdom she would be able to prosper much more in the future.

And indeed when she met him he told her everything she asked and gave her incredible wisdom. Plus he gave her riches from his own treasury which were much more than what she had given him. She sowed bountifully and reaped bountiful. She gave and it was given to her good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Many times we are moved by pity and sympathy and so give only to the neediest and where we feel our gift will have the biggest impact. This is not necessarily wrong. In fact it is right and godly to give to the poor and the needy.

However we need to follow this principle and give the bulk of our finances to those that feed us and minister the Word. To those who reach out and share the gospel with the world and who are serving and working for the kingdom of God. Even if they may not SEEM to need our gift, or they are prospering and in better shape than us.

This is what the queen did. She didn’t give to the poor and the needy for a season because she was investing into her future and her kingdom’s future. After she had given she was able to receive much more than she had before. She was a lot wealthier now and was well able to meet the needs of her people because she had more.

What had appeared to be an inconsiderate, careless, irresponsible act turned out to be a masterstroke.

Comments