"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
- Luke 6:38
Never try to build a house without first laying a foundation. The foundation of prosperity is a continual lifestyle built on the Word of God.
The Word of God reveals that it is definitely God’s will for all of His children to prosper (3 John 2). God’s plan is for us to grow financially as we grow spiritually. When people get money and use it to sin, it does them more harm than good. (Prov1:32). The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. God wants us to outgrow our fleshly foolishness so our prosperity will bring us blessing and not harm. We prosper when we start obeying the instructions Jesus gave us in (Matt 6:25-33)
It is not God’s will for us to worry, but to believe Him to care for us. We have a covenant (Eph 4:12, 13). We have God’s promise of provision. However a covenant is always between two parties. It has two sides to it. God’s part of the covenant is to prosper us – spirit, soul and body as well as financially. What is our part of the covenant? Our part of the covenant is to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. His way of doing and being right. (Matt 6:33).
The Word of God says that we should keep out of debt (Rom 13:8) as it would affect our prosperity. Though it would seem to be to our disadvantage at the time, later it would turn out to be the wisest financial decision we could ever make. Obeying God’s Word never costs in the long run. It pays. We put ourselves in a position for increase when we seek after God and do things His way.
There are spiritual laws relating to giving and receiving. When put into effect, we can see God prospering both us and God’s Kingdom.
God wants us to give to promote His Kingdom to enable many to hear the Word of God and be saved, healed and delivered. In the process we are blessed ourselves.
Right Motive -
Giving should primarily be an act of worship and thanksgiving and it’s also an act of faith, faith in God’s promises that if we give, we will prosper. (Rom 1:17, Heb 10:38, Hab 2:4, Col 2:6).
When our motive for giving to God is right, the more we give, the more we receive.
God always looks on our heart. When we tithe or give our offerings with the wrong motive like fear, obligation, debt or greed or any other motive other than love and thanksgiving to God, we cannot see the financial blessings the scriptures promise. (Mark 10:29, 30, Luke 6:38).
Paul told the Corinthians not to give grudgingly or because they had to, but to give cheerfully (2 Cor 9:7). God who knows our heart, what we think, loves it when we give willingly and cheerfully.
In the plan of God, tithing and wealth are closely connected. Tithing is the covenant transaction that opens the door for God to be directly involved in our increase.
Tithing was first practiced by Abraham, who decided voluntarily to give tithes of everything to Melchizedek, “the priest of the most high God” (Gen 14:20). Jacob also gave tithes (Gen 28:22) and 300 years later, God included a command to tithe, in the Mosaic Law, with a curse added for disobedience (Lev 27:30-32 ,Deu.28:15, Mal 3:8-10). In the New Testament as Jesus had redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal 3:13) we are not under that law and we are not cursed if we don’t tithe.
Nevertheless we are foolish if we don’t, because when we tithe or give with the right attitude of worship and gratitude and not just as a religious routine (Mal 1:8). We cooperate with God in one of the main ways He uses to prosper us financially.
Law of sowing and reaping –
The scripture likens “giving” to sowing seed. (Prov 11:24, Gal 6:7, 8). “Give and it shall be given unto you” (Luke 6:38). Many of us fail to receive a harvest because we have not sown. Sowing must come before reaping (2 Cor 9:6).
Paul wrote that “he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully”. If we are stingy in giving, our harvest will be correspondingly small, but if we give generously, our harvest will be correspondingly generous.
The Lord judges the value of our gifts not by the monetary amount we give, but by the percentage of what we have. He does not expect us to give what we haven’t got. Jesus regarded the widow’s gift of two mites as of far greater value than the more substantial gifts given by the rich people.
When we give we should not see it as losing money. A farmer regards sowing seed as an investment. At harvest time he is not just going to get his seed back but he gets it back many times over. Likewise generous giving to God is a wise investment because not only will it result in what we give coming back, it comes back to us many times over (Mark 10:30).It will also benefit us in the life to come (Mark 10:21, Matt 19:21). We may not be able to take our wealth with us when we die, but we can certainly send it ahead. (Matt 6:20, Matt 19:21).
A farmer is careful to sow his seed in good ground, and we too should be careful where we give our money. In the Old Testament, the people brought their offerings to the priest or Levite and in Malachi, God told the Jews to bring their tithes to the storehouse. The principle is therefore that we are to give our tithe or offerings to the place or the minister who feeds us. We can’t eat in MacDonald’s and pay for it in Subway, can we? We pay where we eat our food.
If we are a member of a good church where we are fed with the pure Word of God, looked after and cared for by the minister and church leaders, and where we are able to participate in Godly worship etc., that is the place to pay our tithe. We give where we are fed the Word of God.
It is one of God’s enduring principles that a seed brings forth after its own kind and that applies in at least two ways to our giving.
First, if we give love, we will receive love, if we give prayer we will receive prayer, if we give money, we will receive money.
The second is that, if we desire a particular spiritual ministry, a good way to obtain it, is to sow into that type of ministry. Supporting an evangelist on a regular basis will help you to become an evangelist. Supporting a teaching ministry will help you become a teacher of the Word of God.
We cannot become a wonderful teacher of the Word of God without studying, but if we diligently seek a ministry while sowing into a similar ministry, it will certainly help us to develop in that area and open up opportunities for us.
Giving of alms (giving to the poor) is also mentioned and promoted in scripture. Paul was prominent in arranging a collection throughout the churches for the poor saints in Jerusalem (Rom 15:26, 2 Cor 9:1-5).
Prov 19:17 tells us that if we have pity on the poor, we lend to the Lord and He will repay us.
Like all sowing and reaping there is a time period involved between when we give and when we receive – “seed time and harvest”.
No farmer plants all his seed, he uses some of it to feed him and his family, some he stores to be eaten later and some he sows in his field. Likewise we should keep some money to feed ourselves, save some to meet our needs. However, if we give generously on a regular basis, while keeping sufficient back for ourselves, we can expect to receive generously on a regular basis, and as a good harvest is always a multiple of what we sow, we will prosper more and more and be able to give more and more. God says He gives seed to the sower and multiplies our seed sown. (2 Cor 9:10).
Once we have given, just as the farmer does not dig up his seed everyday to see if it is growing, but simply leaves it and lets it grow, we should simply leave our gifts with God and not worry about the harvest, but remain in faith that He will bring it at the right time (Mark 4:26-29). Some people do not reap because they get tired of waiting for their harvest and give up. God warns us about that in (Gal 6:9). We cannot expect to plant a seed today and reap a harvest tomorrow. Spiritual things work just like natural things.
Some crops are ready to harvest quickly and some take longer, but that is God’s responsibility, not ours.