Tree of Life Blog

Imagine two angels having a conversation at Sinai, as the Law of Moses is given to the Old Testament saints:

Uriel: Wow, the people are now under the law. I wonder how much as a percentage of their income they will have to give? Obviously, the temple needs funding to ensure people have great worship services in great venues and the temple can pay the priests, help the poor, and reach out to people with the message!

Raphael: it’s 10%, I overheard them talking about it earlier. It’s a remarkably kind low percentage, considering God saved them from Egypt, split the Red Sea, feeds them for free every single day, and the temple provides the blood of goats and bulls to cover their sin. No one will ever starve on 90% of their income. It’s a real generosity for it to be such a low amount!

Uriel: though to be fair, these are spiritually dead people. They have no life inside them, they are fallen from Eden, they have no access to the Holy Spirit, they have to go to prophets to hear God, they need strict laws to keep them out of self-righteousness, and they are only getting their sins covered by the blood of goats and lambs and cows.

Raphael: it is the law, it is holy and pure and wise. It’s a good percentage, God has – as always – chosen wisely.

Now advance these two angels to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:

Uriel: wow, look at these people, spiritually alive, filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues, in community with love and glory. I looked forward to this for centuries, people not under law but under grace. Wow wow wow! Look at this. Remember the first day of Pentecost when the law was given and 3000 people died – well on this day of Pentecost we have seen 3000 people resurrected! Wow wow wow! This is glorious!

Raphael: so now they are not in the Levitical system, but in the church, the actual body of Christ, and have a new high priest, not a Levite, but Jesus Christ Himself in the order of Melchizedek, how much more is God going to ask them for?

Uriel: oh the law is gone, but the tithe remains. Jesus is the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, and like Melchizedek received a tithe from Abraham by faith, now Christians give 10% of their income by faith, not under law, but as a response to God’s great grace.

Raphael: if I thought you were capable of deception, I would say you are pulling my angel leg right there. You are telling me that these people – now washed not in the blood of goats and lambs and bulls and doves, but washing the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh himself, spiritually alive, with all the righteousness and blessings and health and glory of Jesus Christ Himself, in this new, better covenant with the Holy Spirit inside them – are expected to give just the exact same amount as a percentage of their increase that the spiritually dead people under law with no gifts are expected to give? That is amazing. Only the same amount expected and they get so much more! Wow!

Uriel: no, that’s the truth. But I am sure that across the world, Christians will be so glad to be a local church with pastors that love them and equip them, worshipping with all the saints, that they will be giving 20%, 30% or even more, there’s no upper limit on it. Some will fund whole mission stations in nations where is no gospel, others will pay for billboards, pay TV bills, invest above and beyond to ensure that pastors are paid, venues are hired, lives are changed and the glorious good news that we see here on the day of Pentecost is taken to the whole world. I predict people will send lands and houses to get money into local church!

Raphael: I believe it. I absolutely believe it. I almost wish I had some money of my own to give into a church offering, I would love to tithe! And they get a harvest on their giving too, what a deal. No one would ever reject that!

Uriel: Agreed

Raphael: Can you imagine if one of these Christians, right? Born again, completely forgiven, washed in Jesus’ blood Himself, with a spirit as righteous as Jesus – right, did not have the capability, the spiritual wisdom, the ability to give 10%? I mean they might even argue against tithing!

Uriel: What you are suggesting is that a born-again Christian who doesn’t even tithe? Doesn’t even give as little money as a spiritually dead person was giving under law? With Jesus as their high priest, with the faith of God inside them, with the righteous spirit, with the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, and they would not even give 10% a month. No way! That’s the craziest thing I have ever heard. Money is the least thing according to Jesus, people will be fighting to tithe, making sure that their money gets into their churches. Churches are where people grow and are equipped, people will be giving so much more than 10%. The idea that someone would call that legalism or not grace is just insane, think about what Jesus has done for these people and how much better this covenant is!

Raphael: you are correct, of course, the idea of a non-tithing Christian is crazy. They would have to have no clue to what it means to be under grace and what they have in the New Better Covenant to do that. That would never happen. Man, watching these people getting baptized and starting to speak in tongues is so exciting! Glory to God!

In Haggai’s day, the people were rebuilding after the desolation of Jerusalem. They were all spending their money on their houses, but not giving to the Lord’s house. They didn’t prosper because they did not care about the Lord’s temple. They don’t value it in their life.

It is precisely the same today. People who do not tithe do not care if the church is there tomorrow or not. It is the Non-Tithers who suddenly feel led to another church, or go to a conference rather than church, or put Christian TV above church, or even nowadays actually go to Bible College without going to church! They do not realize that the key to successful Christian living is local church.

We need people in this generation with a different attitude. Without the “I can always just find another church” attitude, never settled, never plugged in attitude. I would rather the attitude of David, who was one of the biggest givers to the temple, a man who always tithed, a man who said “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. That’s the attitude we need.

We need to believe in local church to the point we put our money where our mouth is. This is so vital. Some people have actually stopped tithing because their pastor said something that upset them. We had a family once that only tithed certain months depending on what I was teaching! That is so immature, the Bible doesn’t say “Bring the tithes to the pastor”, it says “Bring them to the storehouse”. Tithing should be done to the local church, so if you have no love or respect for the local church, you will end up believing tithing is non-essential!

In Nehemiah, many priests went off to become farmers because the lack of tithing meant they could not continue in ministry. What a tragedy. Not tithing is a powerful declaration that you do not care about being fed the Word or about the body of Jesus Christ.

And tithing is a powerful declaration that you do.

Selah.

Recently a pastor told me about an outpouring of the Spirit in their church, and everyone was worshipping and loving God and the presence of God was flowing, except one person who could not get involved in the flow. I guarantee that this one person was a non-tither!

Affection is one of the most wonderful things about being a human. Having affection for others and having them have affection for you is wonderful. There are times we have to love in faith, but true affection involves the spirit and heart and is powerful and wonderful. David said that he set HIS AFFECTION on the house of God (1 Chronicles 29.3). What happened when David had affection for the house of God – he gave gift after gift after gift after gift!

When you have affection for someone, you go all gooey when they turn up. You go to bed thinking about them, you get up thinking about them. You love being with them, you hate not being with them. That is how we should be about the house of the Lord. You should feel that you could do anything for the house of the Lord – ten percent of your income will alway seem like too little of you have true affection.

Have you set your affection on the house of the Lord? Or are you cold hearted and arguing with God over the tithe? Not tithing is the same as not loving God and not loving His house. Never tell me you love God if you cannot even give 10% of your income to Him. He loves you, and that’s wonderful, but you do not love Him – not really, not that much.

Set your affection on the house of the Lord like David and watch your whole life improve. Not just will you see a harvest on your giving, you will be yielding to an affection of the Lord that will lead to you not being the only one in the room incapable of showing affection in worship when the Spirit manifests in a room!

We can believe a lot of things as Christians, but to believe the truth, we need to come back to the words of Jesus Christ Himself. He said that “No servant can serve two masters, either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16.13).

One of the first signs that someone is not serving God is that they are not tithing. You have to be spiritual, you have to have a level of maturity and faith to tithe. When a person is declining spiritually, one of the first signs of this deterioration is that they stop tithing.

Pastors, if you are concerned about the spiritual health of someone in your church – check out whether they tithe. You cannot be spiritually healthy and not tithe! We had to deal with a situation not that long ago where we had to step down an elder. We traced back how they could go from being on fire to backsliding and it all started when they stopped tithing. Selah.

If you cannot tithe, money is your God, and your end result will be either hating God and loving money – backsliding. Or you will love God and hate money – and end up with a poverty mentality, hating money and never honouring it in the appropriate way to increase in wealth. Jesus said it and I believe it!

Choose to break the domination of money over your life today and tithe to your local church!

It’s time for some straight talk. Often that helps people grow. Here it is: many people do not tithe because they simply do not really believe the Bible. Paul wrote to the Hebrews and told them “Be careful, brothers, in case you find inside yourself an evil heart of unbelief, causing you to depart from the living God” (Hebrews 3.12).

Sadly, many Christians have a heart of unbelief. They act like they don’t believe in Heaven or Hell or Jesus or discipleship or miracles. I’ve even met pastors who don’t believe the Bible.

Now one of the main reasons some Christians do not tithe is that they just don’t believe the Bible. They come up with all sorts of foolish reasons why they should not be giving 10% of their income to the storehouse like the father of faith, Abraham did.

They say tithing was for those under law, when tithing had been around for 400 years before the law of Moses. Just because tithing is in the law, does not mean that tithing is legalism, any more than not murdering or commiting adultery is legalism. This is just immaturity speaking, and it betrays a hard heart, an unbelieving heart. These people are right that tithing is in the Law, and they are right we are not under the law, but Abraham was not under law and tithed to Melchizedek, his priest, and now in the New Covenant Jesus is our High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Jacob tithed under grace too! So the truth is people of faith tithe and that truth is deeper than the Law and predates it.

They say tithing is 23% (or some other percentage, calculated by them) and if we really believed in tithing we would give that. No – that’s not true. 23% is not in the Law of Moses, and you cannot find it. The Pharisees did it, but I am not tithing like the Pharisees, I am tithing like Abraham.

Then they say the New Testament teaches we should give whatever we want. I agree when it comes to offerings, and 2 Cor. 9.7 applies to offerings. Once you have tithed to your local church, you can give special offerings to other churches as you feel. Taking that and applying it to giving to your storehouse church is again unbelief.

Another objection I have heard is that in the Old Testament, tithing had nothing to do with money. We should be tithing our corn, oh, I have no corn, I don’t tithe. My response to that is unbelief at that person’s level of unbelief! We honour the Lord with our wealth, and 2 Chronicles 31.5 says the people tithed oil, wine and sheep, but it then says they tithed everything. You don’t get a prize for knowing that everything means everything, and that includes money.

A few weeks ago, someone told me that they tithe to themselves because they have had the great revelation that they are the temple of God and need to tithe to themselves. I can’t even bring myself to deal with that one, it’s purely a justification for their unbelief and unwillingness to serve the Lord.

We should be joyful givers, but we should also have enough faith to be joyful tithers, giving the same as someone who is spiritually dead, under a worse covenant, in Israel should be easy for us with our better covenant and reborn spirit. But sadly, some people assault the teachings on the tithe in the New Testament to justify their unbelief. Don’t be one of those people, take a step of faith today, and bring your tithe into the storehouse!

Romans 8.6 is very simple and clear. I love verses like that, it helps us frame the world. It says “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”. Now, here is the truth – only spiritually minded people can tithe. You cannot tithe and be carnally minded, and be immature.

Everyone of us is facing financial needs, so on a carnal level, on a sensual level, on a material level it is not rational to tithe. The only way you can give away any money towards the kingdom of God is to be spiritually minded, is to value spiritual principles such as tithing, firstfruits and sowing and reaping above your senses and feelings and ideas and traditions! That’s the only way.

Unless you mature enough to be spiritual enough to override your natural tendencies to be greedy, natural minded, selfish and looking all the time at your own needs, you cannot come to a place of peace with the teaching of tithing. That is why carnal, immature people do not tithe. They need to consistently override their own natural, carnal thinking day after day, week after week and month after month.

Selah.

Coming home today! Yesterday, I spoke at New Creation Church in Canada at their midweek service on the Cry of Command. It was very well received, and we heard some testimonies of people who have been healed over the weekend of various different ailments. Being here has been such an encouragment, and Pastors Moses and Jennifer have been the most wonderful hosts.

A few years ago, I was at a pastor’s conference in America, and I had flown home and literally drove straight to our Guildford church to minister. I’m a little wiser now and leave a little more margin in my life but not by much! So anyway, I am preaching in Guildford, and at the end a couple come to me and say “you must be so depressed right now, we understand”. I said “I am full of joy” and then asked what they mean, because it was a very unusual comment to me.

It turned out a few months’ earlier this couple had gone to the US to a great big conference, with all sorts of international guest speakers, and they had – as was to be expected – a really good time. But then they got on the plane home and when they returned to “real life” they got very depressed and sad and all they wanted to do was go back out to America and go back to this conference. They presumed that I had the same feeling as them.

Firstly, whenever you go to a conference, you have to realize it is not real life in anyway. We have Heal the Nations every year (and it’s awesome, you should definitely be there – http://www.tree.church/healthenations) and it’s not every day. It shouldn’t be. We have teaching in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, we have worship in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. By the end of the week, I am tired, I am working 14-16 hour days, pastoring in between sessions, always on the go, and by the end of the week, Amanda just wants to go find a non-Christian and get them saved! Most people are staying with Christian friends and family, in hotels, they get breakfast made for them, they go out for dinner, they are fellowshipping with Christians, they don’t have work to go to, they don’t have to tidy their house or wash their dishes or clothes. It’s a very different week. Even if you moved to Guildford to go to the wonderful church there, you would have to get a job, tidy up, iron some shirts, and so on. A conference is not sustainable, it’s meant to sustain your real life. I know this so I don’t get upset when it is over. I don’t like living in a bubble, I like being in one once or twice a year to get filled, encouraged and lifted, then I like to go and live in the real world and change it for the better.

Secondly, I am a man on a mission. I know 100% what God has called me to do with my life. And among other things, my task is to plant 100 churches in the UK. And I love coming back. The flight today is far more exciting to me than the adventure I have had here. My calling, my destiny is in the day to day, it is in the mundane, it is in my home. And I love it that way. I cannot imagine being depressed coming home. I fly home tonight, Friday will be a rest day, Saturday will be Healing Word conference, preaching in Nuneaton, Sunday will be preaching in Dagenham and Suffolk. I love it. I love the Tree of Life so much, and have miss you all so much, hence why I have been writing these letters every day to you all.

I meet far too many people who are like Yoda’s description of Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back:

All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.” — The Empire Strikes Back

This is a reminder to all of us who think we would be happier and better Christians if we could just be here or move there or get here, and we do not enjoy where we are right now! You are missing out if you do not live in the moment. One of the worst examples of this I ever saw was a man who told me that he could never be healed in Tree of Life as he could only be healed in Woodland Park in Colorado. What a limited, negative, foolish view of God. Greg Mohr came to preach for us and this man told Greg Mohr that, and Greg told him what I told him – Tree of Life is such a wonderful church, and has so much good teaching, if you cannot receive your healing here, I don’t think you will receive it at Woodland Park. He went to Woodland Park and did not receive.

Wherever you go is where you are! Anyway, I have to pack for a flight, a very exciting flight because today I am flying to the greatest destination ever: HOME. I am flying back to my home town, and my home church, and this weekend I am going to serve at the church. That above all is what makes me happy, and where my joy is.

I have nothing wrong with people going to conferences and events and travelling to meetings, I love it. Go for it. We put on two life-changing conferences a year, Gates of the City and Heal the Nations that if you went to both of those annually, you would never be the same again. We would love to see you there. But all conferences must end, and we have to get into a routine of loving where we are every Sunday, every Tuesday night, every day. Selah.

Love you all, hope to see as many of you as possible over the weekend. As I finish the final part of my epistle from Canada, I want you to know I am typing this with my own hands. Jesus loves you and Jesus is on your side!

Grace and peace,

Ben

Today, after our conference was finished, we had a scheduled day off at Niagara Falls. What a sight! We first went on a cable car over the river, then went underneath the Falls to see them from below which was staggering, then we went up to see them from the more traditional viewing angles and locations.

We think of water as being what comes out of a tap, or the kettle, or a bottle of water, it’s not often we see water moving that fast or powerfully. When we were in the cable car, the eddies were moving at nearly 40mph. There was a small boat that was literally surfing on them!

Water is powerful. When Jesus talked about the new birth in John 4 He compares the new birth to a well.

When you get born again, your reborn spirit becomes a well of Life inside you, giving you righteousness, peace, joy, healing and so much more. It’s great to have a well inside you giving you what you need.

But just three chapters later in John 7, Jesus says this:

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

If you receive the Holy Spirit baptism you upgrade from a well to rivers. Rivers is the plural of river, it means more than one! When you get the Holy Spirit power flows out of you through so many directions to so many people because the Holy Spirit loves people and wants to bless them.

The next time you see someone in need, ask yourself do I have a river for them? If you are baptised in the Holy Spirit and tongues, the answer is normally yes you do, so now do something about it. Lay hands on the person, pray with some authority expect power to flow out of you with force and impact that other person.

Expect songs to come out of you like rivers. Songs that change loved, songs that heal the sick, songs that lead people to the presence and glory of God. Songs that change lives.

Expect Scriptures to flow out of you bringing healing and health and abundance to the people who hear them.

Expect love to flow out of you and impact people, fix the broken people, humble the arrogant people and soften the hard hearted.

Don’t go another day not expecting rivers of living water to flow our our spirits through our souls to people all over the world. Expect to make a difference in the life of others. Expect increase. Expect abundance. Expect results. When you come near someone that water in you is going to rush into them changing their lives forever.

You are called to be a world changer, a life changer, a carrier of rivers of living water to the world, eroding rocks of doubt and unbelief and selfishness and bringing glory to people who need to know the life of God, get born again and get their own wells, and get baptised in the Holy Spirit and get their own rivers.

Don’t settle for less than a supernatural life. Expect rivers to flow. Out of you to offend.

Selah.

Grace and peace

Ben

Last night we had a second healing service here at New Creation Church in Canada. We saw a lot of people get healing from all sorts of aches and pains. One lady who struggled to breathe was healed, another took her glasses off and could read the words on the screen, quite a few people got mobility to their hands.

What I taught on last night was four steps to have a healing ministry based on Matthew 14.14. You have to be where the people are, you have to see the people, you have to love the people (yes, I spoke on my favourite Greek word) and you have to heal the people. That’s how Jesus did it, and we are supposed to function as Jesus.

This morning is Sunday, and we caught the tail end of our church service in Dagenham, and Lee did such a great job talking about doing what God has set before you. Everyone should listen to Lee’s message this morning, it’s inspirational and foundational.

My thought today for all of you is linked in what Lee said and is tbis: we destroy unbelief by doing something.

I could see this as I prayed for people last night. I would agree with them for their ankle let’s say to be healed and I would say move the ankle.

Those who did it were healed, those who hesistated I needed to spend more time with. Actions matter. The people who prosper God’s way are always people swift to give what He says to give. The people who are promoted to serve in bigger ways always served in little ways without hesitation.

Faith takes its eyes off of circumstances, faith looks to Jesus, faith makes bold declarations. But also, James is very clear. Faith without works is dead. Kenneth Copeland last June translated that Faith without actions thag correspond to what you believe never works.

That’s a powerful statement. If you believe you are blessed and highly favoured, but don’t tithe because you need every penny, your actions do not match your faith. If you believe that by His stripes you are healed, but skip church because you are under the weather… Your acts doesn’t match your words. If you believe that God has told you to step out in business but you are not doing it, you don’t really believe that God has told you.

I believe all of us have things we know we should be doing, but are not doing. It’s time to do them church. It’s time to do something.

In the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 Jesus wrote seven letters to seven churches. If Jesus wrote a letter to Tree of Life today, I know one sentence that would definitely be in it, because this sentence is in all seven letters to all seven churches. It is this: I know your works.

A lot of us say “Jesus knows my heart”, and I’m sure He does, but that’s normally an excuse for you to sit down, lick your wounds and fail to extend the kingdom of God. But Jesus did not tell the church, I know your heart, I know it’s tough and I know you are struggling, and I know how much you needed that new TV. Jesus said I know your works. He knows what we do, because what we do is what matters. Our intentions, attitudes, declarations, platitudes, conversations – none of it matters if we don’t do something.

What are you doing to do today? Go and do it! Selah.

Grace and peace

Ben

K9

Last night, I spoke at the first night of a Healing Conference for New Creation Church here in Toronto. Although I had prepared a message on healing is a done deal, God told me during the worship that most people in the room knew that, and what they needed to know was how important and crucial it was that they called those things that be not as though they are and how to speak their miracle into being.

So I immediately changed track and taught for an hour on Romans 4.17. We saw several people healed and the response and commitment to stand on the Word was exceptionally powerful. I can tell the church is pastored well by the hunger and excitement for tbe Word of God.

As I am writing this, I am in the green room of the church, and I can hear from the main hall my daughter Lydia preaching to the ladies, and my goodness, it is powerful. She is also speaking on the power of words. Mark 11.23 and 24! It’s awesome.

So while I am here in Canada, maybe some of you need some mouth surgery. Give up gossip, stop lying, stop speaking defeat and weakness and start declaring the Word. This conference is actually being held in the Charis Bible College in Toronto, and look what I found on the notice board:

Don’t spread offense. How do you spread offense? With your mouth. By passing on gossip, by lying about people, by speaking death. Your words have power so speak life not death.

So many people are snared and trapped by their tongue. They are held captive by their words. They said they couldn’t do it, so they couldn’t. They said the giants were too big and they were. They said incurable and incurable was.

Some people have no issue with this, but I want you to be different. I want you to choose your words carefully and use your words as tools to get you to your destination. Speak your destination. Speak you are healed, bleesed, prosperous,. Say out loud you are the head and not the tail. Say out loud you are more than a conqueror.

Most Christians know what the Bible says and most Christians believe it. Where most Christians are missing it is in the saying.

Mark 11.23 says:

That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Mark 11.23, KJV

Most Christians don’t doubt and believe that what they say is coming to pass, but they are missing it on the saying part. They are not saying what they want to happen.

They talk about demons, about curses, about sin, about circumstances, about sickness, about poverty, about everything other than the desires of their heart. They whine ABOUT their mountain, rather than SAY UNTO the mountain.

Do you have a mountain in your life? Something stopping you doing God’s will? A barrier to success? Is it sickness, an inability, lack of finances, people coming at you? Stop whining about it and command it to move. Speak like a commander, speak like a conqueror. Speak like a king.

Seriously, the number one thing you can do to walk in Victory is to get your tongue to speak and declare God’s Word and then command your mountains to move. Don’t read this and think nice post… Do something about it. Speak life

Selah.

I’m still writing, Lydia just finishing speaking to thunderous applause, and now Amanda is speaking. It also sounds awesome. Pray for all of us. Tonight I am at the Healing Conference again and expecting great results.

Love you all, speak life today.

Grace and peace

Ben