Chapter 11
(This chapter
comes from the book Blueprint Principles for Builders of the House of God)
Where purpose is not known abuse is inevitable. One of the areas where the most Of the
Western Church assemblies have missed God’s blueprints is in the area of giving
and receiving. The prosperity cult has
propagated a self-indulgent practice of making the poor poorer while the
prosperity pundits get richer and richer.
I am convinced that the appalling abuse is consequence of the ignorance
of God’s blueprint for giving and receiving.
If the wealth amassed by these pundits could be equitably redistributed
in the Body of Christ as dictated by needs, no Church gathering would assemble
under trees, in school classrooms, and in shacks. I believe the final move of God involves the
return to heavenly patterns in every sphere of faith activity. The silos of excess materialism in the hands
of the few will be crushed by the revelation of the heavenly patterns whereby
such as have will only give at the feet of the Apostles who will only make
equitable distribution towards the needs of the whole Body of Christ for the
expansion of the kingdom of God. In our times, the Christian World is full of
many fakes, imitations, copies, and hoaxes.
There exist many wrong teachings and practices with regard to the alms
of the people of God. Throughout Church
history many leaders manipulated offerings out of the poor to enrich themselves
at the expense of the poor. During the
time of spiritual darkness in the middle ages, a monk by the name of Johann
Tetzel mislead the Roman Catholic masses to buy indulgences for the forgiveness
of sin. According to Tetzel, people
could purchase a pardon from God that would purge them from a place called
purgatory. Capitalizing on the spiritual
insecurity and Scriptural illiteracy of the masses Tetzel fleeced them to fund
his own extravagant lifestyle and papal projects. Towards the end of the 20th.
century a Tetzelian movement swept the Church once again. This time the torrents of the Tetzelian storm
encompassed the Pentecostals, the Evangelicals and the Charismatics. The proponents of the so-called seed-faith and a hundred-fold return doctrine turned the gospel of grace into a
gospel of greed where a man’s life consists of the abundance of his
possessions. Self-indulgence and
selfishness replaced self-denial and selflessness. Christians who are rich by world standards
are considered to be spiritually, while the poor are considered to be spiritual
paupers. A give to get gospel of greed
is the outcome of this erroneous teaching.
The poor are manipulated into sowing even what they don’t have into the
flamboyant extravagance of the gurus of prosperity. The prosperity teachers mislead the masses in
order to build their own empires. The
gullible Scripturally illiterate masses are fleeced and psychologically
threatened by marketing ploys. In
Ecclesiastes 5:10 the Scriptures sound this caution: “Whoever loves money never
has money enough. Whoever loves wealth
is never satisfied with his income. This
too is meaningless”. In Luke 12:15 Jesus
warns us: “Watch out! Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of
his possessions”. I think that the best
way to dispel lies is to present the truth.
The truth sets free while lies bring one into bondage. As we prepare for
the habitation of God, the heavenly patterns are imperative critical success
factors for total deliverance from manipulative tactics of self-enrichment at
the expense of the poor. Synonyms of the word pattern and words with closer
meaning are blueprint, a master guide, master plan, design, mokgwa goba tsela, isisekelo, etc. A pattern is a detailed large-scale outline
showing the position and size of various parts in relation to each other. A blueprint therefore shows you a way of
doing or making something. Patterns in
Scriptures represent God’s ways.
Blueprints represent God’s system of operation, that is the way God does
what He wants to do. True messengers of
God do everything according to the heavenly patterns.
of my house, nor
go up into my bed,
I will not give
sleep to my eyes,
until I find out
a place for the Lord.
David delegated
this assignment to Solomon. How is it
possible?Through the
transference of blueprints. Blueprints
communicate God’s expectations and specifications.
to build a house for the
Sanctuary; Be strong
and do it. Then David gave to Solomon his
son the pattern of the porch, and of the
houses thereof,
and of the upper chambers
thereof, and of
the inner parlours thereof,
and of the place
of the mercy seat.
of the courts
of the House of The Lord, and of
the chambers
round about ...
All these
blueprints, said David, the Lord made
me to understand in writing by His hand upon
me, even all the work of this
blueprint.
House of The Lord was
finished ...
It came to pass ...
That the House was filled
with a cloud, even
the House of the Lord; so
that the Priests could
not stand to minister by
reason of the cloud:
of God.
a) The key to God’s glory is His
blueprints.
b) God’s glory is realised in the
fulfillment of His promises.
b) The key to God’s presence is
His Patterns.
c) God uses The Word to
articulate His blueprints.
Honor the Lord with thy
substance,
and with the first fruits of
all thine increase.
So shall thy barns be filled
with plenty,
and thy presses shall burst
out with new wine.
upon thee in thy store
houses, and in all
that thou settest thy hand
unto, and He
shall bless thee in the land
which The Lord
thy God giveth thee. And the Lord
shall make
thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body,
and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of
thy ground, and in the land which the Lord
swore unto thy fathers to give thee.
The blueprint of abundance is ordained by God to cause each and everyone
of us to experience sufficiency in all the following areas.
·
Thy barns be filled
with plenty.
·
Your presses
burst out with juice.
·
A blessing from
God on your store houses.
·
Everything you
do should be blessed.
·
Your land
should be blessed.
·
You should have
plenty of children.
·
Plenty of
cattle.
·
Abundance of
the fruit of thy ground.
·
THE LORD SHALL
MAKE THEE PLENTEOUS IN GOODS.
In addition to eternal life, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, God intended all His
people to experience these blessings. We need to examine what went wrong. God is not a respecter of persons yet so few
of us have the means to survive. Hence
the saying as poor as a church mouse.
GOD EQUATES GIVING WITH SOWING SEED.
In order for you and I to experience
God’s blessings in full God has made a way to this end. This way is what I call God’s blueprint for
abundant living. It begins when you
decide to honor the Lord with your substance (what you have), and with the first
fruits of all thine increase (what is known as tithes). If we experience the exact opposite
of what God has promised us, it is a
curse. A curse is God’s righteous judgment
for disobedience. We experience curses
when in disobedience we choose not to follow God’s guidance by His
blueprint. II Corinthians 9 is a popular
verse on giving yet its verses have often been abused out of context. Let us examine this Scripture afresh to
discover God’s blueprint for our abundance.
both minister (2) bread for your food, and
the fruits of your
righteousness.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and return not
thither, but watereth the
earth, and make it bring
forth and bud, that it may
give seed to the sower,
and bread to the eater.
·
To provide seed.
·
To supply bread for your food.
·
To multiply the seed that is sown.
·
To increase
your returns..
·
By bringing rain and snow from heaven.
·
Watering the earth.
·
Make your seed bring forth and bud.
·
To give you bread for food.
·
And to give you more seed.
GOD EQUATES NEEDS WITH FERTILE SOIL.
II Corinthians Chapters 8 and 9 were written to urge Christians to meet
the needs of the needy through offerings.
These Chapters were not written to collect offerings for bank
accounts. While we do not condemn the
latter, it is totally unacceptable to God if we replace meeting the needs of
the needy with bank accounts. The
introduction of Chapter 9 says, “For as touching the ministering to saints,
it superfluous for me to write to you...”
We have realized in
subsequent verses that God ministers to us by giving into our needs food with
seed. Ministering to the saints meant
obeying the commandment of Jesus to give.
There is a wrong perception today that ministering to the saints means
only the laying on of hands. Even the
laying on of hands is for the impartation of blessing, gifts, etc. into the
needs of others. Ministry to the saints
in this context meant the “proof” of the love of those who had to distribute
out of their abundance to the needy.
supplieth the want of the saints,
but is
abundant also by many thanks
givings to God.
they glorify God for your
professed subjection
into the gospel of Christ,
And for your
liberal distribution unto them,
and unto all men.
·
God has
ordained needs as fertile soil for every seed.
·
Every seed sown
in needs will produce supply.
·
Sowing where no
need exist is like sowing where there is no soil.
·
Nothing grows
where there is no soil.
·
Seed is usually
lost and wasted where there is no soil.
·
For no one can
hide seed in fertile soil, the return is too obvious.
·
This is the
reason God is not frustrated by the poverty of the poor, for Satan’s worst,
turns out for God’s best.
·
Every thing you
receive from God has its own seed in itself.
A principle or a precept guarantees
the same outcome every time it is applied regardless of who applies it. For example, the Law of Gravity states that everything
that goes up will come down. This law
permits upward motion but that which goes up must come down. If you understand this principle, you can use
it to your benefit. For example, flying
a plane and landing at a desired destination.
However, many who committed suicide by climbing off cliffs and
sky-scrappers were destroyed by the same law regardless of who they are in
status.
·
God has
ordained seed time and harvest time.
and harvest time, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and
night shall not
cease.
·
Every seed
brings forth its own kind.
Be not deceived; God
is not mocked.:
he reap also.
·
Everything made
by God has its seed in itself.
the herb yielding seed, and the
fruit yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
upon the earth,
and it was so.
·
The return for
every seed is proportional to the amount sown.
shall reap also sparingly. He which soweth
bountifully, shall also reap
bountifully.
·
Every
investment has potential for a good return.
that spang
up and inreased; and brought
forth,
some thirty, and some
sixty, and some a hundred.
The reality many of us experience is contrary to the fulfillment of the
promises of God. Each one of us should
make introspection. Understanding these
principles should convince us that the flaws are not on God’s side, but ours. God’s principles will never fail. As long as the earth remains, sowing in
fertile soil is condemned to result in a harvest. The first step towards solving a problem is to admit its existence,
and properly define the exact problem.
Psychologists reckon that some times a person facing a problem goes
through a cycle of anger, frustration, denial and finally acceptance. Where are
you?
God’s blueprint contains a map for
your journey to giving and receiving. Whereas it is the tendency of many a
people to disregard a map risking to get lost, go around in circles and
accidentally reach the destination, you and I can choose to be wise and follow
God’s blueprint to achieve good returns.
Let us study the following road map to many good returns from Mark 4.
Any of the following categories is at your disposal. The choice to be in either category (a) or
(b) is by your own will.
|
(a) HARVEST
|
(b) PROVISION OF GOD’S PARTNERSHIP
|
(c) NO HARVEST
|
|
1. Sower
|
Seed &
Harvest time.
|
The Way-side
|
|
2. Seed.
|
All grace
|
Fowls of the
air.
|
|
3. Food.
|
Seed supply
|
Devourers.
|
|
4. Arable
|
Food.
|
Stony ground.
|
|
5. Much
earth.
|
Seed
Multiplication
|
Shallow soil.
|
|
6. Depth of
earth.
|
Watering the
earth
|
Scotching
heat
|
|
7. Roots.
|
Make earth
bring forth and bud.
|
Choking
|
|
8. Good
ground.
|
Fruit
increments
|
Thorns
|
of a thing, its abuse is inevitable.
God before He makes a thing. If you
want to know the purpose of a thing
ask its maker”.
When God has determined the purpose of
a thing, He then designs its blueprint in such a way that it has the potential
to meet its purpose. God has ordained
and made each thing according to a specific blueprint so as to enable the
fulfillment of its specific purpose.
Tithing is no exception. Actually
if you understand its purpose you will dispel the confusion whether it is for
the New Testament Believers or not. Let
us make an enquiry from The One who has ordained tithing.
For I am the
Lord, I change not:
therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not
consumed. Even from the day of
your fathers ye are gone away from
mine ordinances, and have not kept
them. Return unto me and
I will
return unto you,
saith the Lord of
we return?
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, even
this whole nation.
Many of us
think that we rob God only when we fail to bring tithes and offering to the
Church, or when we are inconsistent in tithes and offerings. However, there is another side to the robbery
coin. God’s diagnosis of robbery also
includes mankind having gone astray from His ordinances with regard to tithes
and offerings. God’s verdict is actually
that His people have departed from His blueprint for tithes and offerings. Not only do His people fail to tithe, bring offerings,
but also that tithes and offerings are not utilized according to God’s purpose. Therefore the root cause of this robbery is
more our failure to observe and consider both the purpose and original pattern
of God for tithes and offerings. The
dilemma is that curses accompany robbing God.
It will take repentance on our part and a return to the blueprint to
break the curse of poverty.
Bring ye all tithes into the
storehouse,
that there may be meat in my
house,
and prove me 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.
The plan of God for tithes is to provide meat or food in His House. God makes mention of the collection of tithes
and utilization thereof in one breath.
The purpose of tithes is primarily to provide food in God’s House. If we are faithful to bring tithes into the
storehouse, and our leaders see to it that there is food in God’s House then
God says He will open windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it. God planned tithing and offering as a means to an end. The end is abundant means for all our needs
and beyond. God did not create you and I
for lack but for abundance beyond measure.
If you honour the Lord with what you have, and the first returns of your
increase, then your storehouses e.g. bank accounts, fridges, etc. will be
filled with plenty. The deviation from
God’s blueprint is that your tithes remain in money form in a bank account
somewhere, hardly meeting the needs it was intended for. Robbing God includes both failure to bring
tithes is His Storehouse and failure to turn tithes into meat in God’s House.
your sakes, and he shall not
destroy
the fruits of your ground; neither shall
your vine cast
her fruit before the time
in the field,
saith the Lord of Hosts.
A curse is God’s righteous judgement on disobedience. No one can violate this blueprint and be
exempted from the curse. We either
prosper as a result of obedience, or we expose ourselves to lack by our own
choice. Isaiah 1:19 says, “If ye be
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land”. Malachi 3:12 continues to state that “all nations shall call you blessed:
for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts”. The Scriptures
states that “God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that
He should repent, hath He spoken and shall not bring it to pass? Hath He said
and shall not do it?” God simply will do
what He says. In Jeremiah 1:12 God
gives us surety that “I will hasten my
Word to perform it”.
mouth; it shall not
return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing where unto
of thy seed, that the field bring forth
year by year. And thou
shall eat
before the Lord thy God, in the place
which He shall choose to
place his name
there, the tithe of thy corn, and of thy
oil, and the firstlings of
the herds and
of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn
to fear the Lord thy God
always.
are not able to carry it;
or if the place be too
far from thee, which the
Lord thy God shall
choose to set His name
there, when the Lord
thy God hath blessed
thee.
Then shall thou
turn it into money, and bind
up the money in thine
hand, and shall go unto
the place which the Lord
thy God shall choose:
whatsoever thy soul desires, for oxen, or for
sheep ... And thou shall eat before the Lord
thy God, and thou shall rejoice, thou
and thine
household.
forsake him; for he hath
no part nor inheritance
with thee, and the
stranger, and the fatherless,
and the widow, which are
within thy gates, shall
come, and shall
eat and be satisfied; that the
thine hand which thou
doest.
In brief the blueprint
for tithes dictates the portions which the tithe consist of and for what needs
was each intended. Each tithe has a portion exclusively for the Levites (Ministry Workers),
another for the needs (of the stranger,
the widow, and fatherless), the third portion was for the work of the ministry,
while the fourth part was kept in the treasuries or storehouse of God’s House. We discover that three out of four parts of
the tithes were intended for the immediate needs of people. Each tither was charged with the
responsibility of seeing to it that the tithe is used for what it was intended
for. You and I know that we have deviated from the blueprints of God. God holds you as an individual responsible for
disobeying his ordinances for tithes and offerings. Let us return to the blueprint of God. This is a call to the altar for an
individual. The purpose of the tithes is
to provide material substance to meet the needs of the poor, the stranger, the
fatherless, the widow, and to pay ministers of the Word of God. God is earnest about the needs of the
poor. Jesus says on the day of judgment
he will say to those who disregard this blueprint, “ I was hungry, you never
gave me food, I was thirsty you never gave me a drink, and I was naked you
never gave me clothes, go away, for I never knew you”. These people will say, Lord we cast devils
out and performed miracles in your name.
That will not help. The needs of the poor are fertile ground
ordained of God, to grow the seed of everything that is sown in them. In this way God is able to multiply your seed
that is sown in needs. In the
early Church there was no needy person as a result of God’s people giving of their
substance to the Apostles so that distribution was made to all the needs of the
people.
