Tithing Is An Act Of Worship

“The tithe is 10% of our gross income we give to God through our local church. This sanctifies the 90% as “off limits” to satan!”  – Gary Keesee

God honors, blesses and protects those who tithe, but He makes miracles out of the offerings that are over and above the tithe!

Tithing is an act of worship and obedience, your offerings are over and above your obedient tithe.   I love to tithe and I love to give added offerings unto the Lord because I want to lavish my love on Him and I know if I do this, He will do even more for me and my household! Because He loves me even more than I can give – we give and He gives back even more than we ask or think!

He wants to lavish good gifts and blessings upon us!  But we must first reveal our hearts for Him.  That we believe He is Good!

Deuteronomy 28:12 describes: “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ” 

Abraham was blessed because he tithed and believed God!

Jesus said be like Abraham!

Abraham Knew Jesus!  He was generous to Jesus when Jesus visited his tent with two Angels!

It’s a blessing to choose to be like Abraham!

Jesus knew he could count on Abraham to be generous and hospitable to Him!

James 222 – Key of Abraham Works with Faith together!

Faith and Works Can Be Also Fulfilled Through Tithing!

Tithing is a work of FAITH!

James 2:21Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 2 2You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did. 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.…

Tithing brings blessing, increase and protection of God!

It’s not a law, its a choice – Jesus made the choice to be blessed like Abraham possible for us as Christians, the tithe is a way Abraham honored God and God called him righteous and Abraham became very wealthy.

Jesus gave us a choice because He grafted us into the blessings of Abraham!

Jesus always asked the disciples what they had at hand first, they brought that to him and he multiplied it

When you tithe, you are putting a fence of protection around your finances. Tithing will not put a million dollars in your bank account. You have to grow something for God to protect. God wants to see you prosper, but while we are living on the earth, we must follow the rules of the earth. You have to first plant a seed in order to produce a harvest. – Gary Keesee

The word tithe means a tenth. It represents a minimum, not a maximum of giving.

We, as followers of Jesus, are called to tithe and be generous, especially since Jesus was so generous to us.

What most people think is that “tithing” is an Old Testament principle and it’s not for us anymore. However, tithing can be found in 3 primary areas of scripture:

• Abram gave a tenth in Genesis 14.
• Malachi 3:10 talks about how God validates the tithe and says to test Him in giving and that we’ll never “out give” God.
• Jesus in Matthew 23:23 corrects the Pharisees for how they were tithing and redirects them for what they should do with the tithe instead. By doing this, we can see it’s still clearly a New Testament principle, Jesus validates it, and makes sure the heart of generosity is present when tithing, not selfish motivations.

As Jesus demonstrated grace towards us, He always raised the bar from the law. Grace raises the bar in everything. (Jesus in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 compares hatred to murder, lusting to adultery, etc.) This means when it comes to tithing, our goal shouldn’t just be to “hit the tenth and be done,” but rather use the tenth as a starting point and increase from there.

Keep this in mind, this isn’t giving God His money, this is ALL already God’s money. This is our reminder of whose money it is.

When my husband Michael and I started tithing, we became debt free after 20 years of marriage!  We never argued about money again and our finances began to increase.  This is confirmation of tithing.  We want to do this, its a choice, we enjoy being obedient, we want to worship God this way.

Watch the video below on how God brought my husband and I into obedience to begin tithing faithfully:

Biblical Instruction: How God Made My Husband and I DEBT FREE After 20 Years of Marriage

Jesus fulfilled the laws of Moses, yes – tithing is being obedient to God and  is an act of worship and a connection to the blessings of Abraham and we do this through Jesus.  WE have abundance of the Kingdom through Jesus Christ and these are kingdom acts of faith. Also the Kingdom is financed to spread the Gospel.   This is going about the Father’s Business.  Jesus did receive lavish financial offerings from Joanna, a woman of wealth who was married to an officer in the court of King Herod.  Joanna was honored for her faithful financial giving by being one of the women who was the first to see the empty tomb and the resurrection of her Lord Jesus Christ! What an honor!

With the complete work of Jesus Christ, we as believers are now a Melchizadek Priesthood, Kings and Priests through Christ Jesus.  We are no longer a Levite Priesthood.  Meaning that Jesus is both ministry and marketplace.  We can have both ministry and business at the same time, our ministries do not depend on the tithe.  However as Melchizadek was a King and a Priest,  his Kingdom of Salem (Jerusalem) was both ministry (he made intercession before God for the people) and marketplace (he made sure the land and people were prosperous).   He did receive Abraham’s tithe to store and use towards the work needed to be done in his Kingdom region and even to support his work and staff to do this. The first tithe Abraham brought Melchizadek was a 10th of the plunder of the items taken from the enemy from a battle victory!  They celebrated together with Bread and Wine!  Sound familiar?  This is who we are now!  This is how we grow the Kingdom of God in the earth!  They began a partnership and God was honored and fruitfulness in all areas, the ministry, the land, the people and the marketplace and yes even in their own homes, families and land!

This is the perfect government of God!  Salem means “Peace”.   Melchizadek means “Righteous”.    Your ministry and leadership is to be like Melchizadek and your household and business like Abraham.

The Melchizadek partnership of Abraham and Melchizadek, is Abraham and Jesus Priesthood, and Abraham Tithed to Melchizadek.

Genesis 14:18-20 Abram (whose name was later changed to Abraham) had been blessed by God in recovering Lot and the others who had been taken captive. So Abram gave a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek. This is the first mention of the practice of tithing—giving a tenth of our increase to God—in the Bible.

Jesus clearly said for us to be like Abraham – a faithful man whom God blessed abundantly and has a covenant blessing with God that will last for all  his generations and increase in blessings that are either born into that covenant (Hebrew) and those who are grafted into that covenant (Jesus Christ).

As Christians, we are to be like Abraham and enjoy the covenant blessings of God and remember God for His faithfulness to increase our blessings when we honor our side of the covenant with God with our tithe and obedience. It’s a win- win!

John 8:39  “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.”

Once my husband and I became faithful with our own tithe, God then trusted us as a ministry to receive tithes here as a storehouse.  If you feel led to tithe here, we will pray obediently and faithfully over your tithe and do our best to make sure we do the will of God here with all the tithes and offerings that come into this ministry.  However it is important that you tithe where you are being fed and you see that ministry or church doing the will of God and has good fruit of the Holy Spirit.   Tithe where God tells you to tithe.  This is all an act of worship unto Him by the leading of your heart.   It’s not so much the money that God is looking at, but the heart for Him in the way it is presented to Him, it’s like a pleasing incense to Father.  It’s because YOU are remembering HIM and BLESSING HIM.   How much more will He remember you and bless you when you ask?  TITHING is all about RELATIONSHIP.

When we Tithe, it pleases God and He even tells us to TEST Him on this – if we do this in faith and love HE HIMSELF will open up the Windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing so great we can hardly contain it. (Malachi Chapter 3) Not only that, God will then rebuke any and all devouring spirits off your household and finances!  My husband Mike and I can attest to this truth in our own life and finances!

When we tithed faithfully one year later we were debt free, our finances had increased and we never had another argument about money!

This also really grew my husband’s faith, he is a numbers man and wow did God really speak to him in this way.  Mike is now what I call a “Tithe Evangelist”!  He tells everyone he knows our tithing testimony and how God showed Himself Faithful!   God knew exactly how to reach Mike with this and wow he is a firm believer!

I know that many of you may have a spouse that does not want to tithe, but you do – so you can start to be an example to them – show them what God does for you when you give in a loving way, and then ask the Holy Spirit to reveal this to your spouse too!  I promise you the Holy Spirit will help you with your spouse if you ask Him!  Then the two of you can tithe in agreement to bless your household. (Get my prayer here to send the Holy Spirit to a loved one.)

Remember a tithe is different than an offering, a seed or first fruits.  Learn more here with my teaching on financial giving for the Kingdom of God.