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Posts Tagged ‘tithing’

Gloria Copeland — The Power of Praise and Tithing

05 May

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

“Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity.” Again, as in Deuteronomy 26, you are saying to
the Lord, “Send us prosperity.”

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we
have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is
the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice
with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art
my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will
exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:
for his mercy endureth for ever.

When you start giving this way, just as a praise to God, things
will begin to happen in your financial life. Praise is a tremendous
tool in releasing the power of God. Combined with the law of
giving, it is unbeatable! There is no standard return on giving as
a praise to God, and it took David from sheepherder to king of
Israel. Do you think God loves poverty? Read a literal Hebrew
translation or The Amplified Bible and see the vast amount of
money David put into building the temple. It was millions of
dollars! David was a prosperous man. The Bible says he was a
man after God’s own heart. Where do you suppose he got all his
wealth? From the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who gave
him the power to get wealth.

Now we have discussed these different areas of making
deposits, but there are times when you can combine some of
them and be even more blessed by it. I remember when I was
preaching a meeting that God had said would be a turning
point in my ministry. I wondered if He meant it to be a turning
point the wrong way! The first evening service we had eight
people. My first offering was $4.25. Naturally, I was stumped,
so I went before the Lord and asked, “What in the world am I
going to do?” He said, “You are going to believe Me!” Then He
showed me some things from His Word and circumstances
began to pick up. The offering got all the way up to $33 one
night! I decided to send it home to my wife and the Lord said,
“$33 won’t pay your bills. If you believe My Word about tithing,
if you believe that Jesus will take your money and worship
Me with it, why don’t you tithe now on the amount you are
needing and expecting in the future offerings of this meeting?
In fact, your $33 will do just fine.” That’s all He said. From
then on it was up to me; it involved faith on my part. You see,
the money belonged to me. The Lord didn’t demand that I
tithe beforehand. All I actually owed in tithes was $3.30; He
wanted me to give as a praise to Him for what I expected Him
to do, and that is exactly what I did. I combined tithing with
giving as a praise to God and the Lord blessed the meeting in
every way. It started with eight people, but by Friday night
people were literally sitting in the windows because there
wasn’t enough room to seat everyone. That meeting turned out
to be the best meeting I had ever had financially up to that
time. Praise the Lord! Can you see the blessings that are available
in these things?

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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Kenneth Copeland — Tithing Part 3

24 Mar

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

In tithing, you are laying the foundation for financial success
and abundance. You are establishing deposits with God
that can be used when you need them. Don’t wait until your
back is against the wall before you use your faith in this area.
Build your faith first when things are going well. Learn to act
on the Word now, and when Satan tries to pin you against the
wall, you can smile and know that you have it made. His power
over you financially has been stopped! When you stand on the
covenant of God and exercise your rights as a tither, Satan has
no chance against you. God will rebuke the devourer for your
sake. If your back is against the wall financially now, don’t wait
to begin tithing. You cannot afford to wait! The tithe belongs to
God in the first place. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed
me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me” (Malachi
3:8-9). This scripture says that a man who does not tithe is robbing
God and is operating under a curse because of it. Start
tithing now! If you don’t have any money, find something you
do have and give it today. There is no faster or surer way to
break that curse. Immediately when money comes into your
hands, FIRST take God’s tithe out and present it to Him. “Honor
the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors],
and with the first fruits of all your income, So shall your storage
places be filled with plenty, and your vats be overflowing with new
wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10, The Amplified Bible).

Remember, the Word says that God gives us the power to
get wealth and the blessing of the Lord makes rich. In tithing,
God is giving you 90 percent and receiving for His work in the
earth 10 percent to provide ministry for you. “And he gave some,
apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians
4:11-12). You can’t out-give God! He gives back His 10 percent
to see to it that you are perfected, equipped and edified.

This brings us to the question of where God’s tithes are to be
placed. Some think only churches are to receive tithes. This
would be true if their church is the source of their spiritual food
and growth. The Word says to bring the tithes into the storehouse
so that there would be MEAT in His house. A storehouse is where
the food is. I know thousands of people attending churches of all
denominations that receive no spiritual food whatsoever from
their churches. How could that be a storehouse?

Verse 14 of Deuteronomy 26, The Amplified Bible, says, “I
have not eaten of the tithe…or given any of it to the dead; I have
hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according
to all that You have commanded me.” I would not consider
putting God’s tithe into a dead work. If you want to put money
in a church that is dead—not ministering to people—then put
your money into it, but it is important to put the tithe into a
storehouse that is feeding the life of God to the people. Many
churches and foundations serve as Satan’s reservoir to keep
finances out of the revival that is in the earth today.

To settle this question, since it is God’s money to start with
and since Jesus is the One who will handle and receive the tithe
(see Hebrews 7:8), pray and let Him tell you where it should be
put to work. I realize this is not too popular with some church
doctrines, but nevertheless, it is accurate. Jesus is Lord over
the finances of the Body of Christ! He is fair, and He is just in
the distribution of God’s tithe. When a church sees to it that the
people are fed, that church will receive its portion. When an
evangelist sees to it that the people are fed, Jesus will minister
to him his portion of God’s tithe. All the different ministries
qualify to receive from Jesus more than enough to fulfill their
particular calling when they feed God’s people.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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Gloria Copeland — Tithing Part 1

10 Mar

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

This is, of course, the most familiar financial subject to
Christians. Nearly all of us are aware of the practice of tithing,
but very few actually realize its true significance. It was a commandment
of God to Israel that 10 percent of their first fruits
belonged to God. As I mentioned earlier, when God told me to
teach this subject for the first time, He led me to Deuteronomy 26
where He first introduced it to Israel. Let’s start with the first
verse and relate this to our role under the new covenant.

“And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it,
and dwellest therein.” How does this relate to the Christian? The
Word says in Colossians 1:13 that God has delivered us from
the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. We are living in the kingdom of God. We have
entered into our inheritance in Jesus Christ and possess it in
His Name. We have the title deed to this kingdom through faith
in Jesus Christ. The authority has been given to us, and God is
showing us how to exercise our tithing privileges in order to
maintain control efficiently in the financial world.

Verses 2-3, “That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of
the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God
giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place
which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. And
thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days.” Who is
this priest? Hebrews 3:1 says that Jesus is our High Priest.
Hebrews 7:8, speaking of Jesus, says He receives our tithes
personally. Therefore, we are to go to Him with our tithes and
say to Him, “I profess this day unto the Lord God that I am
come into the inheritance which the Lord swore to give me.”
This is a very important point in the tithing procedure: Make a
confession before your High Priest.

Verse 4, “And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand,
and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God.” Can you see
where we have been missing it? We quickly drop our tithe
money into the offering plate as it passes by or stuff it into an
envelope without a thought. Instead, we are to present it to
Jesus, who, in turn, will set it before the altar of God.

Then in verses 5-10, the Lord builds Israel a confession telling
of His mighty work in their lives and of delivering them from
bondage in Egypt. At this point, we Christians need to switch to
our position under the New Testament. We were sinners in the
world, and our confession should be something like this: “I am
in the land which You have provided for me in Jesus Christ, the
kingdom of Almighty God. I was a sinner serving Satan. He was
my god. But I called upon the Name of Jesus, and You heard my
cry and delivered me from the power and authority of darkness
and translated me into the kingdom of Your dear Son. Jesus is my
Lord, and I bring the first fruits of my labors to Him as the High
Priest and worship You with it. We rejoice in all the good which
You have given to us and our household.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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