Thou Shalt Circumcise!

This comic strip nails it. One of my favorites from the Searching for Grace series, by Mick Mooney.

"Abraham tithed before the Law, therefore, thou shalt tithe", is a popular line among ministries that know tithing is from the Old Covenant, but still overtly or subtly imposes tithing. This is done while conveniently forgetting that Abraham circumcised before the Law as well, and yet, we don't see the same zeal for preaching about circumcision. 

Secondly, Abraham did not tithe "to be blessed", as it is popularly led to believe. What he gave was from the spoils of a war. Abraham was blessed simply because God conferred the blessing upon him. Period.

Fast forward to Moses. Under the old covenant, blessings or curses hinged on one's actions. Under the new covenant, however, a person is blessed because of Jesus' finished work on the cross. It's called Grace. Under the new covenant, giving (to whoever the heart guides) is done cheerfully, whether it is 0.1% or 100%.

How Jesus Reacted To Two Wealthy Individuals

Myth:

Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell and distribute the wealth amongst the poor; therefore, wealth is bad.

When viewed from another angle:
The issue was about his TRUST in his wealth (Mark 10:24).

Now let's meet a "bad" guy - Zacchaeus. This guy was rich (Luke 19:2), and yet, we do not see Jesus asking him to liquidate his assets and disperse the funds.

The difference here is, Zacchaeus was not banking on his self-righteousness, unlike the rich young ruler, who supposedly kept all the commandments. When grace and unconditional love came to his life, the fruit followed.

It's never about people having money, but money having people.

Salvation is not just about a passport to heaven. The Greek word from which 'saved' is translated is Sozo, and here is the link to what it means.

Listen to the first words of Jesus after he began his ministry:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” - (Luke 4:18-19 NKJV)

Freedom in every area of one's life is what Jesus came for. Sickness or poverty does not glorify the Father, who is Love, especially when the redemptive work on the cross took care of all those problems with one sweep.

Was Jesus a Socialist or a Capitalist?

"God created man in His image and then man returned the favor." - George Bernard Shaw

One of the things that we love to do is mold God to fit our views.

Contrary to the folklore, Jesus was neither a socialist, nor a capitalist. Both these resources operate using the resources on earth. Jesus' source was the kingdom of God.

When the need came up to feed the five thousand (not including the women and children), neither did the poor give what little they had, to fund the need at hand, nor did the disciples organize a fund-raising event to gather the money from the rich. With the little that was given to Jesus by a little boy, He multiplied it supernaturally and in abundance. He did not just meet their bare needs. There were baskets of leftover food.

Since Jesus' source was not the economic systems of the world, it did not matter how bleak the circumstances around Him looked like. He was the answer, because He was connected to the Kingdom.

The kingdom of God is within us. The One who is in us is greater than all the earthly resources put together. Even though we are in this world, we are not of this world. We are supposedly, the "children of God". We are supposedly the "Ambassadors of Christ" and the ambassadors are not taken care of by their host countries.

But leave it to the enterprising churchianity to sell this truth on how to earn this blessing! I do not know if there is another truth that has been more abused by the organized Christianity. The solution is freely available through the redemptive work on the cross. The fact that this has been been prostituted much does not take away from the truth that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of poverty. There is nothing "spiritual" or "virtuous" about poverty. In my view, the organized Christianity played a prominent role in glamorizing poverty when not one human soul has to live under the yoke of poverty or mediocrity anymore. The church should be part of eradicating the curse of poverty, instead of inadvertently glorifying it.   

In Christ we are blessed!

But why?

"The blessing" is not the end of the story. We are not blessed to testify that, "God has blessed us", while our neighbor struggles. We are blessed, also to BE a blessing, to be conduits of His unconditional love. Giving a homeless man a cute sermon on how Jesus loves him won't answer his immediate problems. We need resources to spare. 

But how can we, when we are allergic to the very term 'money'? Aren't we supposed to be "spiritual"?

No sane person who is financially struggling would say that they do not want money. Broadly classified, there are mainly two groups of people who criticize wealth. The first group has never experienced poverty. They have their needs and desires met, month-to-month. The second group has bought into the lie that poverty is godly, when it is actually a curse.

Money, by nature, is neither evil, nor good. It comes from a tree. When zoomed in, it is energy. It is a neutral element. In the hands of a drug pusher, it is called "drug money", but to the person who is a conduit of Love, who knows WHO the Source is, money is nothing but a tool.

Blessed In Jesus

“... whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” - 2 Corinthians 6:9 ESV

MOTIVATION

Let us for instance assume that the scripture above was not in the Bible. If that truly were the case, would we still give? If ‘getting back’ is the sole driving force behind our giving, we are then using God as a vending machine. “God, here is my money, now give me my stuff”. Christ did not go through the religious criticism (which I believe is far worse than the physical torture He endured) torture and crucifixion to be our delivery boy. We are not giving due credit for His love (which we cannot even comprehend with our natural minds) towards us when the motive is just about “meeting my needs” - be it spiritual, health-related or financial.

UNEARNED GIFT

In Romans 8:32 ESV, Paul says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Financial abundance is not the product of our giving, just like salvation and healing are not products of our good works. Salvation is a gift from Christ Jesus. We are healed because Jesus bore our sicknesses. Our financial prosperity does not start with our giving. 2 Corinthians 8:9 is the foundation of our financial abundance. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” Some might think that this verse is just about "spiritual" riches. But if we study 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, we can see that the subject is about money.

Financial abundance starts when we believe that ‘Christ became poor so that we might be rich’. Believing what Christ did for us in each area of our life (health, wealth, peace etc) is the key that will let us see the blessings in manifestation. 

But the belief is always accompanied by a corresponding action. James confirms it in James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Giving will be the fruit that naturally follows. But often times, we focus on the action part. We think our action is what initiates everything. Once we get a real revelation of his unconditional love for us, no one will have to force, encourage or entice us, to give. We will no longer debate if we should give 10% gross or net, or 90%. The debate goes out of the window and then the heart starts making the decisions. God loves a cheerful giver who gives from the heart.

We are not forcing God to bless us when we give, for we already are blessed in Christ Jesus. It is only by grace that we have access to the blessing of God, which includes salvation, healing and financial abundance. And gifts are not earned; we simply receive it. 

So I would have to be ignorant of the Gospel if I say, “I am giving to be blessed”. That will put the onus on my action, which stems from the Old Covenant mindset.

BIRDS

In Matthew 6:25-26 ESV, Jesus says, “... do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

If the birds do not have to sow or reap, why then we - the beloved children of the most High God, carriers of Jesus Christ, carriers of his power that is embedded within us, carriers of The Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead - must sow to meet our personal needs? Our Heavenly Father knows our needs even before we open our mouths to pray. The only requirement to meet our personal needs is in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

This is where the intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit becomes vital. Until it finally hits us that the King of the universes calls us friend, it would be hard with our natural minds to accept the truth that we do not have to even think about meeting our daily needs.

HAWAII? 

This does not, however, mean we should quit our jobs, or close our businesses and move to a beach resort in Hawaii and expect angels to feed us every day. We should be diligently working in whatever occupation we are involved with. God is our source of income, not the job or business. Our occupation is just a channel through which the fund flows to us. When, or if we lose our employment, we have nothing to worry about. That job wasn’t our source of income in the first place. First of all, we have to renew our mind to the truth that the One who created this universe lives within us. Secondly, losing a job simply means that the channel is changing, perhaps to a better one. When drought hit the land, God directed Elijah to move to a new place where he was supernaturally supplied. The Source was the same; it was only the channel that was different. God supplies our needs, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus; not according to a fluctuating economy.

BREAKFAST 

To the parents who are reading this, would you demand a portion of your child’s breakfast to feed them lunch, or dinner, or to enjoy all the provisions of your household? I would assume that you would not even give a consideration to that thought. Children are the heirs to everything that the parents own. So if we do not withhold good things from our children, why would we think that our Heavenly Father, who is Love, would do that? Are we presuming that we have more love than Love himself?

Malachi 3:10-11 happened under the old covenant. And yes, there is the account of Abraham tithing, once, before the Law. If we are using Abraham's tithing as the foundation for the modern day tithe teaching, let's not forget that Abraham went through circumcision before the Law as well. Why isn't the tithe teaching churches emphasizing circumcision?

My point is, why must we limit our giving with a fixed and a small percentage? Is not that too impersonal and formulaic. When we buy a gift for a close friend or family, don't we buy from our heart?

SOWING AND REAPING

So what about 'Sowing and Reaping'? With the solid foundation of 2 Corinthians 8:9; when we believe 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 and cheerfully (not reluctantly or under compulsion or manipulation) give as decide in our heart, God is able to make all grace abound towards us, so that we always will have all sufficiency in all things, we will have an abundance for every good work and we will be enriched in all things so that we can be generous, which in turn results in an heart-felt thanksgiving to God.

The Holy Spirit, Who inspired Paul to write that passage does not lie. But this giving must purely be directed by the guidance of the Holy Spirit who lives in our heart and not by the flesh or on the basis of a subtle or an overt legalistic requirement of a church organization. This act of faith is for Jesus' sake and for the sake of the gospel, that sets people free from every bondage.

Please do not give because I said so or a televangelist thinks it is a working principle. Instead of being led by preconceived notions or what some book/preacher says about this topic, allow the Holy Spirit, The Teacher, to make this truth alive in your heart. Giving is one of the most purest things that a person does from the heart. Love gives. It is tragic that teachings have made this into impersonal formulas and principles. But also on the other side of the spectrum, it is equally tragic to throw the baby along with the bathwater, because some have manipulated this freeing message. 

BUT WHY?
The end goal is not to hoard, but to BE a blessing. Money is merely a tool that will help many people from their bondage. Contrary to popular knowledge, money does not corrupt anyone. Robert Kiyosaki says it the best on this matter, "Money does not corrupt you. Money only reveals to you who you really are. If you are greedy at the core, more money will make you greedier. If you are cheap, more money will only make you cheaper. If you are a crook, more money will only make you more of a crook. If you are generous, more money will only make you more generous."

When we renew our mind with the truth that we are grafted in Jesus, we bear fruit as a result of His life flowing through us. The branch does not strive to bear fruit. When we are grafted in Him, we will no longer need a scripture to "encourage" us to give. Giving comes out as a fruit, because it is no longer we who live, but Him. And giving is God’s nature, for God gave us His best, His Son Jesus.

IN CONCLUSION

As you may have noticed, this is not an article on “15 Steps to become a billionaire”. At the same time, this is not an "anti-wealth" message either. Jesus came so that we may have his life more abundantly. Poverty is one of the curses that Christ has redeemed us from. The scripture is not against prosperity in every area of one's life. In Jesus' words, this is the will of God - "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is no poverty in Heaven.

Authentic prosperity is the Life of Christ Jesus in us. And lack (in every area of one's life) must not be accepted where the King of kings resides. But the fruits of his abundant life in us will manifest only to the point we believe Jesus' finished work on the cross. This is about a complete surrender to Jesus - literally making Him the Lord over each and every area of our lives. It is about resting in Him, instead of trusting in our works, regardless of our sincerity.