You need to do 3 things for a breakthrough
Matthew 6 focuses on the three things that will lead to a breakthrough.
- Giving
- Praying and
- Fasting.
Prayer
Mat 6:9 This, then, is how you should pray
Fasting
Mat 6:17 But when you go without food, put oil on your head and make your face clean; Mat 6:18 So that no one may see that you are going without food, but your Father in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will give you your reward.
Giving
Mat 6:19 Moenie vir julle skatte bymekaarmaak op die aarde, waar mot en roes verniel en waar diewe inbreek en steel nie; Mat 6:20 maar maak vir julle skatte bymekaar in die hemel, waar geen mot of roes verniel nie en waar diewe nie inbreek en steel nie; Mat 6:21 want waar julle skat is, daar sal julle hart ook wees.
When you pray, you release the thirty-fold return. Praying and giving releases sixty-fold blessing. But when you pray, give and fast, you will see a hundred-fold return!
Many believers don’t know that there is a test in the Bible, and you take this test every time you get paid. The test is: Whom are you going to thank for your income? You take that test by what you do with the first 10% of your income. Whom are you going to worship for your income?
Some people thank the bank, it is the first one they pay. The only problem is that the bank does not have the power to bless your finances.
Mal 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. Mal 3:7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
Turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them – Means that you have turned away from your ordinary behaviour. Now they ask in what way.
Mal 3:8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. Mal 3:9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. (ASV)
Mal 3:8 I ask you, is it right for a person to cheat God? Of course not, yet you are cheating me. ‘How?’ you ask. In the matter of tithes and offerings. Mal 3:9 A curse is on all of you because the whole nation is cheating me. (GNB)
Mal 3:8 Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings. Mal 3:9 You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation. (BBE)
Mal 3:10 Bring the full amount of your tithes to the Temple, so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things. Mal 3:11 I will not let insects destroy your crops, and your grapevines will be loaded with grapes. Mal 3:12 Then the people of all nations will call you happy, because your land will be a good place to live. (GNB)
They moved from the ordinary behaviour. Tithing is an ordinary way of behaving. God is speaking and reminding his people that they have moved away from their ordinary way of behaviour. It is an ordinary principle for God’s children to give 10% of their income to God.
Since you have moved away from God’s ordinary principle of tithing you are now under a curse.
A curse is a consequence not adhering to the principle. The principle of the Tithe. God gives you 100%, but the first 10% belongs to God. God has set-aside the 10% for the house of God. If you keep the 10% you are stealing it from God.
These are strong words from God. If you take what belongs to God, you are volunteering to place yourself under a curse because you are moving away from God’s ordinary principles of behaviour.
1. Tithing is a test.
God is testing our hearts.
If a person is arguing about tithing, you must ask yourself what is the spirit behind this? Why are you arguing about 10% when God gave his son for you and you don’t even want to give him 10%. Why would you argue about this? It is a test of your heart.
Hebrew word for tithing is : mah-as-ayr’, a tenth or 10% . God choose a percentage because it is fair to everyone. It is the same for every person.
Many times, when you see ten in the Bible is represents testing.
It is a two-way test. God is testing you, but it is the only place in the Bible where God says you can test him. Test is the same word that is used to test the genuineness of metal or Gold? God is saying that we should test him to see whether He is pure. The Lord wants us to test him. He wants to open the windows of heaven He wants to bless you.
It depends where you are going to bless God with his 10%, you can trust him, knowing that 90% blessed goes much further than 100% not blessed. You open an area of faith when you do this. There are people that say that tithing is under the law and therefore not relevant any more.
So, if that is true does it mean that we can therefore also ignore the ten commandments?
2. Tithing is Biblical
A lot of people don’t believe that tithing is in the Bible and that it is for us today.
Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. Gen 14:19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: Gen 14:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
This is 500 years before the law, and here tithing is being practiced. It is an ordinary principle.
Gen 28:22 And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be God’s house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part to you. (BBE)
This is 400 years before the law. Showing that all that God has given, a tenth will go to the house of the Lord.
Lev 27:30 And all the tithes of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD.
The word holy here means that God has set it apart for him. God has set it apart for his house and if you are keeping it you are robbing God.
Deu 26:1 Soon you will enter and take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you as your property. When you have settled there, Deu 26:2 take some of the first produce harvested from the fields in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and put it in a basket. Then go to the place where the LORD your God will choose for his name to live
Deu 26:13 When you have distributed all that was stored, say to the LORD your God, “Nothing is left of the holy offering stored in my house. I distributed it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows as you commanded me. I disobeyed none of your commands, and I didn’t forget to do what you commanded. Deu 26:14 I didn’t eat any of this holy offering while I was in mourning. I didn’t distribute any of it while I was unclean. I didn’t offer any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God. I have done everything you commanded me. Deu 26:15 Look down from your holy place in heaven. Bless your people Israel and the land flowing with milk and honey that you have given us, as you promised with an oath to our ancestors.”
If Jesus himself told that you must tithe, would you tithe? The sad part is that some people still must think about it.
Mat 23:23 Wee julle, skrifgeleerdes en Fariseërs, geveinsdes, want julle gee tiendes van kruisement en anys en koljander, en die swaarste van die wet laat julle ná: die reg en die barmhartigheid en die trou. Hierdie dinge behoort julle te doen sonder om die ander na te laat.
3. Tithing is a blessing
Hezekiah is reading the Word of God. While reading it, he understands why the nation is under a curse because they are not tithing. They are stealing from God.
2Ch 31:4 He told the people living in Jerusalem to give the priests and Levites the portions they were due so that they could devote themselves to the LORD’S Teachings. 2Ch 31:5 As soon as the order was given, the people of Israel brought gifts of their finest grain, wine, olive oil, honey, and other farm produce, and they also brought the tithes of everything they had. 2Ch 31:6 The people of Israel and Judah who were living in the cities of Judah brought a tenth of their cattle and sheep and a tenth of the holy things they had dedicated to the LORD their God. They piled these holy things in heaps.
2Ch 31:10 “Since the people started to bring the offerings to the LORD’S temple, we have had all we wanted to eat and plenty to spare. The LORD has blessed his people, and there’s a lot left over.”
As soon as the people start tithing, they were blessed.
There are two types of tithers, the first that testifies that since they have tithed they were so blessed. The second types are those that says I cannot afford to tithe.
You will never be able to afford to tithe, until you have tithed. Tithing is what breaks the curse and rebukes the devour.