Tree of Life Blog

How are you today? Obviously you can read this right now? Obviously you have eyesight! You have the strength and health to read this? How did you get that health? Where did you get that strength from? How did you get the job you have? How come you are so intelligent, so blessed, have so many opportunities and chances? How come you are still alive?

The answer is God. God is the reason you have health and strength and wisdom. God is the reason you have life! God is the reason you are here today!

Now if you got all these things from God, and all your life and income is from God, how is it that you could ever live a life where you do not come to the Lord in worship and honour Him with the tithe and first fruits of your substance?

God has been nothing but good to you! He has blessed you and provided for you – and tithing is an act of worship, of thanksgiving, of remembering His goodness.

Failing to tithe is the same as never saying thank you.

Failing to tithe is the same as not worshipping God!

Failing to tithe is forgetting where your strenght comes from!

Failing to tithe is being ungrateful.

If you are not tithing, you are an ungrateful person.

Now remember in the Old Testament, Psalms were the worship songs of the church. Imagine coming to church one Sunday and we sing this:

They [have] hatred for my love.
⁶ They say, “Get an evil person to turn against him.
    Send an accuser to bring him to trial.
⁷ When his case comes up for judgment,
    let him be pronounced guilty.
    Count his prayers as sins.
⁸ Let his years be few;
    let someone else take his position.
⁹ May his children become fatherless,
    and his wife a widow. (Psalm 105.5-9 NLT)

While you are hating God’s love you are singing about losing every court case, dying young, losing your position, and all your prayers being counted as sins.

Now I know we are in the New Covenant, and under grace, but the principle is still identical – not-tithing is not being grateful. Let’s remember all of God’s mercy and goodness to us, and let’s honour His goodness and repay Him with goodness!

Malachi 3 tells us something interesting about when we tithe. It says that your vine shall not “cast her fruit before the time” (KJV), which the NLT explains as follows: “Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe”.

One of the great things about tithing is that your grapes get to ripen. One of the worst things about not being a tither is that your grapes often fall and die before they ripen.

What do I mean with that? I mean this – one of the biggest problems in your life as a non-tither will be what I call the “failed harvest”. It means you do not reap the correct harvest in life according to the effort you put in.

Now for a literal farmer, it could easily be a literal harvest. He is growing grapes, or some other fruit or grain, and he could fail to get a harvest from his land. For those of you in other jobs, it could be that you are working very hard but not getting rich. I know far too many people who are working to exhaustion, sometimes ten or twelve hour days, but they are not earning much at all. I know other people earning six figures who only work a few hours a day.

Hard work is definitley one of the pieces of the puzzle of prosperity and abundance, but it is not the same everywhere. A doctor in America earns on average nearly $300,000 a year. the same doctor working in New Zealand earns $105,000 a year. Doing the same job! But if you are a doctor in Cuba, you will earn about $800 a year. Same job!

The doctor in US is earning nearly 400 times as much as the Cuban doctor – you think he trained 400 times harder, you think he works 400 times harder? They both sowed the same grapes and one has had them come to full harvest, the other they had a failed harvest, their grapes fell to the ground. A failed harvest!

Now in that case, those failed harvests are due to nations and they are beyond the power of the people in the country, but many of us in the same situations, doing the same job, in the same nation, even the same nation – one is earning much more than the other.

But I know this – when you tithe, God Himself promises that you will not suffer a failed harvest. Your grapes will not fall!

Now you can see why tithing is so important, it is a major key to abundance, a major step into prosperity. You keep that ten percent away from God, you will get poorer, not richer!

I want all of you to become tithers so your grapes do not fall to the ground, I want you to enjoy your grapes!

I do prefer living in the New Testament, don’t you? I do love that I do not have to bring a pigeon to church – or a goat or cow. I’m glad I have access to the throne of God all by myself and don’t need to tie ropes around a high priest and send him in for me!

I am really glad that I am redeemed from the curse of the law, and that I am not under a curse when I sin. I am glad I am not under a curse when I sin by not tithing!

But because we are not under a curse when we fail to tithe, many Christians strangely throw the following verses under a bus, rather than read them carefully. Malachi 3.8-10 KJV:

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

⁹ Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

¹⁰ Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Now we know that we are not cursed by God for not robbing Him, but not tithing is STILL ROBBING GOD. You are still a GOD ROBBER.

• You are not cursed in the New Testament for robbing a bank, but you are still a bank robber.

• You are not cursed in the New Testament for robbing a house, but you are still a house robber.

• You are not cursed in the New Testament for not tithing, but you are still a God robber.

And if you sin, you are vulnerable to satan. One of the benefits of tithing is that God will “rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground” (Malachi 3.11). In other words, failing to tithe opens the door for satan – not God – to devour and destroy you!

I don’t want to be satan’s lunch, I don’t want to be destroyed. I don’t want to give satan any place in my life, so I tithe. Not out of fear, not out of guilt, but because I understand spiritual principles!

The Hebrew word for devour is akal (awkal) and means to eat up or burn up. I don’t want to give the devil space to eat my stuff or burn my harvest!

The Hebrew word for destroy is sahat (shawkhath) and it means to decay or be spoiled. I don’t want my new car spoiled, I don’t want my new carpet spoiled, I don’t want my investments spoiled, I don’t want my clothes spoiled. I do not want to give the devil that kind of space in my life!

So I tithe. And I encourage you to tithe as well. It’s amazing that you tithing can actually stop satan moving against you! What a deal!

I am doing a new series today called The Glorious Power of the Tithe. These messages are going to inspire Christians to do one of the most fundamental things in the Christian life, tithe and give offerings. These could also be used as short offering messages in church services.

In Hosea 8.7 we are told if you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

Imagine knowing that, still when the offering bucket passes them by, some Christians actually put nothing more than wind in the bucket. They put wind in the offering, wind in the church bank account, it’s all wind. There is no money, no seed, no honour. I know people who have been in our church years and never given a single penny. They have sown the wind, and they will reap a whirlwind. A wild wind. They sowed nothing, and literally nothing itself will come and find its way to them. It’s not God judging them, it’s just the wind they sowed finding its way back to them.

Really all Christian abundance and success in life, in family, in church, in business, in ministry comes from sowing a seed and then having a harvest for that seed. The most basic level of sowing is financial. Jesus in fact said if you are not faithful in money, you will never be trusted with spiritual things. I know people who want to be elders, want a pulpit, want to preach and see miracles but they do not tithe. It’s like they have never read the words of Jesus Himself! They want a glorious harvest by sowing wind.

Can you imagine a farmer actually sowing wind in his fields? The next harvest season it would be the same results as if a whirlwind devastated his fields – no harvest at all. That’s the results a non-tither will get. And pastors – never appoint a non-tither as an elder. They are unfaithful people, and they will be unfaithful to you and to their service.

Listen if you are not tithing – you harm your finances because you are harming your coming harvest. You are sowing destruction into your future. Do not do that!

Travel a short way. But every day without fail.

John Wesley once said that if you catch fire people will come to watch you burn. The most powerful thing on earth is a burning soul. A human ablaze with dreams, with love, with passion, with purpose.

When you look at fire, it is always moving, growing, feeding, That is what we need to be. We need to be ablaze. You need a fire in your soul that drives you, that causes you to feed on the Word, feed on good teaching, worship, dance, engage with people, love people, serve people. You need a fire in your soul to lift your life above the flesh level, to lift your heart, your dreams and everything you are to a higher level.

A lot of people never catch fire, they never think about how they think, they just take their temperature from their environment. We must not be that, we must warm people who come close to us. We must be the influencers, not the influenced.

If you are offended at someone, it’s because you are not on fire. They offended you because they influence the way you think. You should be loving them and influence the way they think.

When you catch fire, a lot of people will now no longer understand you. A lot of people do not understand me, they do not know how I have done what I have done, or do what I do – so rather than try and understand, they just criticize and accuse. The same will be true of you if you burn. Just keep your eyes off your critics, keep your nose in the Word, and burn ablaze for Jesus. Keep getting better results, keep thinking better thoughts.

When you pray a prayer in faith, the results are not according to the faith you have when you are praying, but the faith that you express afterwards when you act like you believe you receive. Act on fire, burn for Jesus.

British people are conditioned from birth not to want more. You don’t need this and that, be happy, be satisfied with what you have, rich people are all terrible people, the bosses are just corrupt, you have enough, you have God and that is enough.

All of this is ignorance of the highest level of our true spiritual nature. We are designed for increase, we want increase. We want to continually be more fruitful, more successful and influence, lead and help more people.

When we start to realize that this is our spiritual nature, we then learn how to help others increase and walk in their best life and their success. You need to expect increase, believe in increase, hope of being fruitful.

It’s not easy to hold your mind and heart in a continual place of wanting more, of advancing, of increase. It is far easier to just stay at the same level year after year after year, and just start at the same level, the same wisdom, the same power, the same size, the same income, the same everything. That is not God’s will – we need to dream bigger and want to break every limit and every limitation. Doing that will stress you at first, you will encounter brand new problems, and you will have to expend energy like never before. It’s hard work to advance beyond the normal, so the only thing that will keep you going is a WANT. Why do you think when Jesus teaches the most important teachings on faith, on prayer, on the power of Words ever, He starts with the words “what things you desire”. Desire has to be the drive to advancing. Desire change. Desire more. Desire increase. Desire betterment. Desire abundance. Desire. And let that desire change the way you think, you feel and act.

Your top priority every day of your life is to keep growing. Learn a new idea, read a new Scripture, think a bigger thought. Your second priority is to share something new with others and help them on their journey. You are God’s highest creation, created to create. To create means to bring increase. When people are around you, they should be inspired to dream, inspired to desire more.

Let these thoughts grow and expand and stop feeling insecure, angry, frustrated. Resist thoughts of lack or limitation – not just for yourself, but because that kind of negativity is contagious. Love people enough to dream big and become a pioneer and advance.

God made you to be fruitful and multiply and to increase. Pastors should be pastors of growing churches. Businessmen should be increasing the size of their business. Salesmen should be selling more. Apostles should be planting more churches. Our nature should be growth. You should be getting smarter, wiser, more fruitful as life goes on. The entire planet was designed for increase.

You should be driving a better car than you used to, wearing better clothes, having a better house, having more luxury, more knowledge, more enjoyment out of life. You are designed to advance not retreat.

You know this at a spiritual level but so often our soul gets accustomed to retreat and stagnation, and we need to refocus and remind ourselves violently that we are designed to increase.

OUR CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT can go back generations, telling us to settle where we are, telling us that our nation, our city, our community cannot have a growing church. We need to refocus and remidn ourselves – we are designed for increase!

Your spirit is craving increase, and your soul is saying “well, you don’t deserve it, that dreams is probably not from God, you should be content with your lot in life” – you need to understand that you are a spirit being and your spiritual nature is designed to be fruitful and increase.

You are the highest level of creation that can be created, and you are in the image of God, so you are actually designed to create too, reflecting your Creator. You need to get this inside your mind and let that form the images of what you are and what you will be. Stop thinking lack, stop thinking limits, stop thinking of getting to the next level. Resist the problems, shift your perception and grow and advance!

You need to think about how essential this is – that you increase. We cannot avoid it. If you do not increase, you cannot help more people, influene more people, lift more people to a higher level, and your attitudes will not help others increase.

Pastors, never be stagnant. A stagnant pastor makes a stagnant church – that is one that no one benefits from. Always be learning and growing!

Right now in your mind is a battle between your culture and worldview and your dream. Your culture and worldview confines you to what everyone else has done in your surroundings and what you think you can do – and your dreams are trying to break those strongholds and raise your imagination to the highest level so you can dream big and walk in your dreams.

Now you want to walk in your dreams – your spirit wants your soul to grow and prosper, and your life to grow and prosper. Your spirit has deep, God-given desires and wants them to flow through your soul and your soul is blocked with cultural ideas and family ideas and experiences and circumstances that you have built into strongholds in your mind. Now your spirit and your soul are at war – and you cannot afford for the strongholds in your soul to win. You cannot allow your cultural norms, your experience of the past, your opinion of what you can or cannot do define you. You have to let yourself walk in your heart’s desire.

You want to advance – I want you to advance – so start believing you can advance and walk in that right now. When you get that inspiring you and filling your soul – then you will always walk in your dreams. A prosperous soul is true freedom.

You need your dreams to fill your soul. This battle is essential. You have to fight the energy holding you back and get more energy on the spiritual side. Pray in tongues, listen to great preaching, be in church, be in small groups until your mindset changes. Until you see yourself the way God sees you.

And what if you get there and increase your vision to an immense image. Use that as the new normal, and get some more immense images.

Most people are restrained by their own thinking. They never think any different, so they never have any different results. They are being held bondage by their mind, destroyed by what they do not know, not being transformed because their mind stays same-old rather than renew. You can call it whatever you want – but it is a restraint caused by a refusal to renew their mind.

To break free from that kind of restraint, there are three simple steps (well, simple to explain, never quite so simple to do, but always possible in Jesus’ name). The first step is HAVE A NOVEL THOUGHT. You need a new thought. You cannot renew your mind without a new thought. You need to go somewhere and hear a new thought. Maybe our leadership conference, maybe this blog, maybe a wise friend, maybe a sermon, maybe a book. But you need to get a new idea. Not an idea that fits in your mind, but a new one. Not one that comes from your tradition or culture, but a new idea. A NOVEL IDEA. A NEW THOUGHT. You need one. Nothing else changes at this moment on the outside, but this is the very first and non-negotiable step to change.

Most people novel thoughts, then reject they have had them. They are like when the seed falls on the path, gets eaten by a crow and there is no fruit. The idea went in their head but didn’t hang around long enough to make any change.

So, you need to HOLD ON TIGHT AND NOT LET GO. It can be unnerving to have a new thought, it can be disconcerting. Sometimes it can be plain terrifying. Let’s imagine you are listening to a sermon by someone who planted a church, like I was in 2008, and God spoke to me to plant a church. That was a new thought, and it was not pleasant and wonderful. I had to hold onto that thought and never let go. At times I wanted to let go of that thought, I wanted to ignore every idea that I was called to plant churches.

Finally, you – if you keep steps 1 and 2 well – will end up at the third stage HAVING WHAT YOU ARE THINKING AND NOTICING IT IN THE NATURAL. That’s where we need to be – where things happen in our life. But to get to having it in the natural, you must absolutely change your thinking first and hold onto the new thought.

Get somewhere you hear new thoughts. Hold onto those new thoughts, and watch it manifest. You cannot get a new life without new thoughts, so go looking for the new thoughts, find the godly ones and hold on tight!