A Relational Discussion Forum Dedicated to Apostles

Tithing Finances in the Kingdom
by Cindye Coates

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone." -- Matthew 23:23

The Dream - When God needs our undivided attention, He will often send us a strong message in the form of a dream or vision. God has never spoken to me so clearly as He did recently in a dream that will forever change the way I think about the tithe.

In a dream, I was a medical doctor sitting beside a pregnant woman lying on an examination table. The woman had just consummated her marriage minutes prior to the examination. She was fully clothed with the exception of an exposed abdomen. I had an ultra sound device placed on her abdomen as we both observed the monitor. We watched the sperm (containing 23 chromosomes) fertilize the egg (which also contained 23 chromosomes). We both witnessed the conception of her child. She joyfully exclaimed. "There is my baby boy!" "There is my Matthew," she added. I woke.

Then I awoke to process the dream, realizing the obvious interpretation was Matthew 23:23. Here, Jesus is speaking to leaders:

"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things." -- Matthew 23:23 (New Living Translation)

The phase," You should tithe, yes…" jumped off the page at me. I'm not sure I ever realized that Jesus commended the Pharisees for anything. Jesus actually recognized their tithing as something that they were doing right and encouraged them to continue tithing! Obviously they were lacking in justice, mercy & faith. However, Jesus was quite pleased with their tithing.

Dream Interpretation - As I read Matthew 23:23, my mind kept going back to the dream. I kept hearing the woman say, "That's my Matthew!" "This baby was a Man Child", I thought. Matthew means 'God's gift.' Soon, I began to see the message before my mind's eye like seeing a Polaroid picture develop.

This dream was about the conception of the Man Child "Matthew" God's Gift. Conception is what occurs in our mind when we conceive ideas and concepts, which are alive and able to reproduce a godly seed. God's Gift to the world is the Man Child concept. This cannot occur apart from justice, mercy, faith, and TITHING! Tithing is Giving 101. Tithing is basic.

Jesus is speaking to us today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever! I really believe we are coming up to a whole new level in understanding the awesome power of tithing. The kingdom of God is clearly the domain of King Jesus. He is the Word made flesh. As He is, so are we in this world.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." -- Hebrew 13:8

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." -- John 1:14

"As He is, so also are we in this world." -- 1 John 4:17

We have never "preached" tithing in our church. We have, however, modeled tithing and giving as a lifestyle before those in our congregation and community. We have given great testimonies of the blessings of being in covenant with God. We have never pressured people to give under compulsion. We believe that God loves a cheerful giver. We have encouraged people to imitate our loving Father God (The Ultimate Giver) as dear children. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Lately we have found that few people understand the meaning of being in covenant with God. Covenant is most important to God. Anything that God considers important is worth taking the time to learn what it means!

Covenant -- Definition: A contract or agreement between 2 parties.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for covenant is berith. Berith is derived from the root, which means "to cut." In modern English we would refer to a covenant as " cutting a deal." The Biblical references refer to the dividing of animals into two parts and the contracting parties passing through them making a covenant. (See Genesis 15 and Jeremiah 34: 18,19)

The Corresponding Word in the New Testament Greek is diatheke. The King James Version of the Bible rendered the Greek word diatheke as "testament" when it ought to be the same as the Hebrew word berith, which means "covenant." Why is this important? A testament and a covenant are two entirely different words with different meanings. The New Testament is really THE NEW COVENANT, or a covenant involving 2 parties; God and man.

A covenant by definition is a mutual agreement of two or more persons/parties. Simply put, a covenant is a MUTUAL AGREEMENT! Being in covenant with God means we are in agreement with Him since He is the initiator of the covenant. He is not in our covenant, we are in His! In other words we are in agreement with God's stipulations of the contract He laid out in order that He could share His great treasures with us.

His covenant or contract is binding! We are bound to Him and His blessings as we walk out our agreement with Him! God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from us in return.

Now, if Jesus said not to exclude justice, mercy & faith while tithing, this clearly means that God is in a binding contract to include His justice, His mercy, and His faith on our behalf. Involving God in the financial aspects of our life is a wonderful opportunity to move into a supernatural realm as it concerns our money and wealth!

Money is a sensitive subject. Most people, no matter how wealthy they are, feel constrained by the lack of it. In this situation, it is often difficult to assess how much of our scarce funds we should give for the work of the church. Fortunately, the Scriptures do give us guidelines to help us honor God in our contributions.

The most common pattern of giving associated with the Bible is the tithe, which literally means a tenth. The tithe is frequently held up as God's standard for giving, often by citing passages such as Malachi 3:10 -- "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

Many have said in years past… " The Old Testament is the blue print of the New Testament." However, it is the other way around. We must rightfully divide the Word of God's everlasting covenant in light of redemption. Malachi alone will not make sense until we understand that it was written to the priesthood. Jesus, Himself is not only a priest, He is the High Priest! Jesus tithed.

Giving Beyond Tithing -- The Old Testament says quite a bit about tithing. However, the New Testament takes tithing to a whole new level. Tithing is where we start learning to be generous and faithful just as our Heavenly Father is generous and faithful!

The New Testament is also known as The New Covenant, which is a better covenant. Jesus, who is God the Son, gave the ultimate gift to redeem us. He set the pattern for giving by giving his life. What a privilege it is to have the distinct honor to support this message in the form of tithes and giving.

In recent years giving to Christian ministries has decreased. According to the Barna Research only 6% of born again Christians tithe and far less give on a regular basis. (source -- http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageCategory.asp?CategoryID=36):

• The proportion of households that tithe their income to their church - that is, give at least ten percent of their income to that ministry - has dropped by 62% in the past year, from 8% in 2001 to just 3% of adults during 2002 (2003)

• In 2002, 6% of born again adults tithed. This represents an 8 percentage point decline from 2001, (14% of born again adults tithed) and a 6 point decline from 2000, (12% of all born again adults). (2003)

• Nearly 9% of the evangelicals tithed in 2002 - roughly three times the national average. (2003)

While Christians are debating if tithing is "under the law" or not and or if we should tithe before or after taxes, Muslims and Mormons faithfully tithe and support their leaders, the poor, and missions. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world largely due to the sacrificial giving to advance their beliefs. Mormons are the fastest growing cult in America; again due to the large percentage of tithing members.

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap." -- Galatians 6:7

New Covenant Giving -- New Covenant giving begins where the Old Covenant left off. If we have a new and better covenant, we should give more generously than those who walked with God under the Old Covenant. How ridiculous it would be to think we are exempt from generosity because of God's grace. That would actually nullify the covenant since a covenant is two sided. It takes two parties to form a covenant. Jesus obviously fulfilled His obligations. The ball is in our court now. He desires to take pleasure in our prosperity as we favor His righteous cause, establishing His covenant in the earth.

"Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, 'Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.'" -- Psalm 35:27

Christians are not under any legal obligation to contribute to the needs of the Church. Rather, we are compelled by the love of Christ to give freely, as He freely gave Himself for us. On this basis, we are encouraged to give generously and willingly, in proportion to the blessings that we have received.

Our giving is in response to the needs of the Church. Those who minister the Word should be freed from the need for secular employment. In true Christian love, we are called to help those in need, both through gifts and other acts of kindness. Christian giving is an act of worship. We give because we have received more than we could possibly ever repay.

"The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain', and 'The worker deserves his wages.'" -- 1 Tim. 5:17,18

23's in Scripture
I found a common thread while studying Matthew 23:23. The number 23 repeatedly occurs where the scripture is talking about prosperity, abundance, plenty or wealth. The prosperity might be representing the wealth and prosperity acquired through diligent work or it might be the prosperity of divine grace: a free gift. More specifically the number twenty-three is often associated in scripture with life, prosperous life, abundant life, and fruitful life.

Psalm 23 -- The most famous of all the psalms is probably the best example of the significance of the number 23: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anoints my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

This psalm starts out with prosperity. Those who look to the Lord, who welcome Him as their shepherd will never want for anything. Verse four is the only one to mention death and then only in the context that the person who God shepherds need not fear death.

Joseph & 23 Verses -- Both Genesis chapters 39 and 40 contain exactly 23 verses. They are the first chapters in the Bible to do so. Genesis 39 is the story of Joseph's captivity in the land of Egypt. He rises in the service of Potiphar until the master's wife lies and has Him thrown in the dungeon. The last few verses then relate that he became the "ruler" of the dungeon, second only to the appointed keeper.

Thus the final few verses deal with prosperity, albeit under otherwise adverse conditions: "But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper." -- Genesis 39:21-23

In Conclusion, it is God's plan to prosper and grant health to us as our soul prospers. To those struggling with the fear of poverty and even the past abuses in the area of finances, I suggest a simple prayer of surrender. It is a prayer that will cause a maturity to awaken deep within refreshing the weary in heart: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." -- Psalm 51:10

More information about Cindye's ministry can be found on her web-site at www.SolomonsPorch-Atlanta.com where she co-pastors with her husband Stan Coates in Marietta, Georgia..