Malachi 3:8-12 8"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings you have withheld. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, this whole nation! 10 Bring all the tithes the tenth into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test 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 so great a blessing until there is no more room to receive it. 11 Then I will rebuke the devourer insects, plague for your sake and he will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field drop its grapes before harvest,” says the Lord of hosts. “All nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight,” says the Lord of hosts.
People say this is the only place where God allows us to test Him. When we withhold our tithes and offering, HE says we are robbing God. Pastor Kim Yong Doo once said that it is a very fearful thing to be robbing God. He said it is better you rob a bank than God because he was shown how so many Christians are ending in hell for robbing God.
Many people have actually started to tithe based on the promise in verse 10. God said HE will open the gates of heaven and pour out a Great blessing. Verse 11 shows a condition with the word "then" and in other translation the word "and". However, we should not be tithing to obtain a blessing, we should tithe because it is a commandment of God. We tithe to stay in the blessing.
Many people assume this great blessing is physical so they tithe hoping to receive a great physical financial blessing. But it appears the physical blessing is in verse 11 as God stops the devourer from destroying, cursing, eating our finances.
When we are properly tithing/offering and is generous with God, HE will pour out a Great spiritual blessing first. Just as Cornelius was greatly blessed as the Holy Spirit had come like the wind to him and all of his household. All of his household were saved as a result of his unselfishness. Cornelius was a man of prayer and he was very generous to the poor. Since he was a gentile, he could not tithe to the synagogue so he gave to the poor.
We can be greatly blessed financially but the order is always spiritual first. Many Christians tithe and offer for financial blessing but we need to realize that we need a spiritual blessing first so that it may manifest to the physical. When we obey God's commandment to tithe and offer, we are a blessed people. This is not an option but a commandment.
When our spiritual health is restored, favor and blessings will be greatly manifested in the physical. All this does not happen overnight. A harvest does not produce over night. We must go through seasons passing our tests as we become more like HIM.
Please remember you are to tithe off your gross and NOT your net as net can be manipulated.
Pastor Steve Yong Kim
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