Present Location: Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong. “How much does it cost?” I was pointing to the 555ml of bottled water. He looked at me and pointed to the direction of the water to confirm my choice in the array of bottled liquids. I concurred and I heard him say “3 dollars”. “Do you mean 3 Hong Kong dollars?” I asked. He expatiated further; No, 3 American dollars; it is 70 Hong Kong dollars. I paused for beat and did the calculation which amounted to 360 Naira for a 0.56 liter bottle of water which costs 35 Naira in Dubai International Airport and 200 Naira for 1litre bottled water in all the airports in Nigeria. My Ijebu instinct took over me and I turned back, walking towards the purpose of procuring the water; it was for a 14-year old female Philippines teenager vomiting ceaselessly because of her phobia for flying. She was a stranger to me but I was the only one kind enough to enquire about her condition. She just finished a term in school and came in from Heathrow Airport transferring to Manila International Airport where her parents are waiting for her. I looked in her direction one more time and turned to get the bottled water; all the while thinking of my daughter.
Personally, I will rather wait till I get to the Hotel to take water but maybe the money tonic confession has started taking its toll on me or is it a stronger reason? Anyway, I have always envisioned my family waiting for my daughter at the airport after each term at school, hugging and listening to her school gist as we drive home from the airport. My daughter could be in the same position as Izzy (well that’s her name short for Isabella) because of this, I threw all economic analysis out the table. Now, I had to sow into her life no matter the cost. This is a logical way of thinking; finding a reason to do what you would normally not do. If I had not put my daughter in the picture, though my heart wanted me to do it, I would have not been happy doing it. I have learnt through life experience that if humans do not rationalize their heart tendency, it becomes difficult to follow through the heart dictate. Even if they eventually follow through, they feel all the guilt in the world unless someone rationalizes it. I remember a conversation I heard on radio between a caller and the radio DJ; the caller fell in love with a prostitute. He was unaware she was a prostitute but when he found out, he was very confused and guilty for still being in love with the prostitute. He could not understand why his heart would be leaning towards the prostitute; he wanted to understand so he was confused and guilty.
This is the way humans feel when they follow through with a heart desire they cannot understand. They have this strong urge to do something and when they do it, they feel very guilty for taking the step because there is no rationale behind taking such decisions. This is such a huge challenge especially for Christians when they are asked to give out their material resources in order to increase the well being of the Church. I remember the first day I ever gave a tithe to my fellowship in the university; I took 200 Naira out of my monthly allowance which was 10% of 2000 Naira. I dropped it in the moving basket and almost immediately the service was over, I felt very foolish and thought I had been conned. Then I started rationalizing how stupid I was; how was I going to survive with 1800 Naira remaining? I always complained to my dad that the 2000 Naira was not enough now I am reducing it by 200 Naira. I felt so bad about giving the money that I could not sleep well that night. I looked into the much quoted Malachi Chapter 3 and immediately my heart was moved again. I could not explain it but I felt peace and intuitively knew I would do it again if giving the next opportunity but I could not rationalize it.
Malachi 3: 8-12 (New America Standard Bible) made me understand that I was robbing God by not paying my tithe; this sounded strange to me at the time. How can I be robbing God when it was my earthly father that gave me the money in the first place? Malachi 3 further says I should bring the tithe to his store so that there might be food in the store house. Now this was funny; why should I care if there was meat in the store house, which one is my own? Then it became more interesting when it said I should test Him that he would open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing until it overflows. Now this made me a little bit curious; God is saying I should give him a try that he would make me blessed but the windows of heaven was confusing though; where were the windows of heaven located? Now Malachi 3 totally blew my mind when it said God would rebuke the devourer for my sake. Is Malachi making me understand that I am paying tithe for protection against my enemies but I am a gregarious and totally honest guy, I have no enemies? The last verse aligned with my desire; all nations shall call me blessed, for I shall be a delightful land. So I would be known in all nations like Michael Jackson and I would make them faint with happiness. Men this last statement was cool and I was willing to try God on this promise so I continued giving my tithe. Alas, I did not see my perceived physical evidence of this then I made an excuse for God; God did not mention the time he would bring this to fruition. Much later in years, I realized my interpretation at that time was wrong on all counts but before I further expatiate, let me explain a very important concept to you;
Man is made up of body, soul and the spirit. The soul is the central part that contains the mind and the heart. The mind is used for interpretation of the feelings we derive from the body and the spirit. The body is made up of five senses that feel the earthly realm and the mind interprets the feeling; the spirit also feels but not the earthly realm but the spiritual realm and the mind also interprets the feelings it gets from the spiritual realm. The heart is the seat of emotions that has the tendency of gravitating man towards a choice. The spirit can feel something from the spiritual realm but may not be able to interpret it by the mind because the mind may not have been exercised to interpret the feelings of the spirit but the mind can readily interpret the feelings of the body because man has been exercising the interpretation of the feelings derived from the earth since man was born. Whenever man feels something in the spirit and cannot interpret it, it goes straight to the heart, if the feelings keeps pushing and pushing. The heart eventually takes control of the choice. This was what happened to me on my first tithe giving; my heart got the feelings from my spirit to give the tithe though I could not interpret the reason why. So many people who are awake to the spiritual realm are encouraged to do things they cannot interpret. You may have knowledge of something but may not be able to give an explanation to that thing. This is the dilemma that faces most men.
I would attempt to give you logical reasons why tithe is the foundation for all investors. We believe we have to tithe but we cannot interpret the reasons why. It is made worse when we look at people who have not even heard the word called tithing and are moving ahead in life. I would try and explain in so many ways why your tight situation is as a result of not tithing. Please, sit back and relax as I take you through the journey;
1.Tax Allegory: Citizens of any Kingdom or Country pay taxes in order to increase the well being of the government and the political policies. One of such policies is to defend the Kingdom or Country from external and internal enemies; this why we have the police and the armed forces. Another political reason for tax is to establish, maintain and troubleshoot infrastructure in the state like road, water and electricity. Imagine a country where the citizens refused to pay taxes, the country would definitely not survive; either the outward enemies would take it over or the country would be lawless because no funds to pay the law keepers and the law givers. This is the situation with the Kingdom of God; if you refuse to pay your tithe, you are simply supporting the enemy from taking over the kingdom and also increasing lawlessness in the kingdom. The Kingdom of God is different from man’s kingdom; where man receives tax before functioning, God functions before receiving your tithe. This is why God says the tithe is mine because I have already provided you with all you need to survive this world so you owe me the tithe. The tithe was never yours because you would never be living in the first place without my support and in order to maintain the soldiers (pastors, evangelists, etc) working for me, I would require a certain percentage of your money (minimal of 10%). Refusal to paying tithe is equivalent to robbing God because he has provided you with all the amenities and you refused to pay. God’s way is “PAY AFTER SERVICE”
2.Retribution: refusal to support a country by paying your tax brings a “curse” to that country; it breeds armed robbery, rapist, con men, etc which jeopardizes your security. You would never be able to live in peace in that land. This is the curse that God was talking about; the lack of peace in the Kingdom of God; God says you are cursed already. It’s not that God is interested in cursing you but that your actions of “refusal to pay your tithes” have provided your curse. Just imagine a country where taxes are not collected; there would not even be a government in place because no one would be willing to take the political office and everything would be in disarray. Put this in mind when you refuse to pay your tithe.
3.The Meat: God says you should pay your tithe so that there may be food in the house. When there is food in the store house, you would be able to have access to information in the spirit realm which means you would be able to interpret what your spirit is feeling. The windows of heaven would be opened to you meaning you would have access to whatever God is passing across to you in terms of information. Heaven is where God lives and the heaven is a spiritual entity; the window of Heaven can be closed to you because there is no food in the house. Imagine a pastor that is suppose to get revelation from God through prayers and reading the bible is bothered about paying for his meal and taking care of his wife/husband. He/she can never access this information to share with you but in the situation that the pastor is not bothered about the money, he is more likely to deepen himself in God and get revelation to share. The more he shares the revelation he gets, the more you would access the windows of heaven and the more you would get blessed.
4.Blessing: Blessing is not the physical possessions you have or want to acquire but a spiritual possession that allows to you to produce the physical possession of your desire whenever you want it. You have what is referred to as the Midas touch; whatever you put your hand in turn to gold. This is because when you access the heavens windows, God gives you information that would put you above any situation. If you decide to go into a particular business, the kind of information you would get in that business would be superior to others because it is knowledge differential that separate men from boys. If you go into shares, you would be prompted on which share not to buy. This is what is called Blessing; this is what God says you should test him with. If you pay your tithe, you would create peace in the Kingdom, revelations would be passed onto you that increase your access to God and the information you would get from God would be superior to any other. Now this is where the issue lies for people who pay their tithes; because they are used to interpreting the feelings from the earthly realm, they trust the feelings that come from the earthly realm more the one that comes from the spirit. If I was going to put my money in Zenith bank shares and the information from my spirit says not to but because my stock broker comes with all his analysis and assurance, I trust the stock broker more then I have violated the process which leads to the fifth reason.
5.Devourer: The devourer is not an enemy from without but an enemy from within you which hinders you from putting that information you receive into use. The symptoms from accessing the devourer include greed, fear, worry, anger, lust and indiscipline. When you pay your tithe, you get more exposed to revelation that you are able to overcome the devourer himself from passing information through your spirit. You cannot accomplish anything when the devourer hits you; the only reason you would prefer the broker’s advice to the advice you get from God is because of greed. The broker paints a bigger picture of the returns and the greed in you gets attracted. When you pay your tithe, your resolve in God’s advice would be stronger.
6.Popularity: The offshoot of any superior wisdom is popularity but not like Michael Jackson who has not been able to live in peace despite his fame. This wisdom that comes from tithing would give you peace in every endeavor of your life be it marriage, work, etc. You would not just be popular in one thing but be popular in every aspect of your endeavor; you would be a role model and all nations would surely know you are blessed. I am sure most people would agree Michael Jackson is definitely not blessed on all sides.
7.Abundance Mentality: The truth of the matter is that when you give, you increase your mental capability. You rely less on the material possession and think of using your mind to acquire more. You think beyond your present possession and you start thinking very big. The cure for selfishness is to give more; the more you give, the more you are cured of selfish act. The less selfish you are, the more you are able attract more wealth to you. When your mentality increases, you are not bothered about competing with anybody, you would want everybody to get what you have without qualms. This is what tithe achieves; it increases your capability to produce more. If you don’t tithe, you cannot think beyond your present capability. Most people may not call it tithing but giving for the good of men. Whatever you call it the effect is the same whether you tithe (which means 10% of your increase) or you give some percentage of your money to increase the well being of your people, I believe this practice would increase your mentality which is a prerequisite to abundant wealth.
Warren Buffet gave out 32.5 billion USD in 2006 and was recorded as the greatest charity of all time. This money was a substantial part of his physical possession but he was still able to rank #2 in Forbes World Billionaire in 2007. I would not be surprised if he bags number 1 this year. What are you waiting for; start the giving culture…
