Grace Assembly : Acts of Grace

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. (Malachi 3:8-9)

There is a devourer out there in this world that you and I cannot rebuke. You can tie, you can bind, you can fast, you can pray, you can shout, you can stand on you head and do all kinds of things but nothing will change, it will still be there,. Why? Because it says in the word of God, there is a certain demonic power that only God can rebuke.

“And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the LORD of hosts. And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:11-12)

Jesus spoke of the bankruptcy of the nations and the nations shall go bankrupt. The term is bankruptcy of the nations. Right now we are in that state. And God says if you are suffering in this time of famine and stress of the nations, he says, “Do not neglect the tithe.” For when you tithe, he will rebuke the devourer in your gates and on your ground. So there are certain powers only God can rebuke. How can I get God to intervene in this specific area of finance and provision on this ground within my gates?

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

The bible says when you honour the Lord, the Lord will rebuke the devourer and you will not lose the fruit of your labour. I will open the windows of heaven and I will pour out a blessing that you will have not enough room to receive it.

Why is the tithe so important to God? What is it supposed to be used for? Last week, we learned that the tithe is to support the Levites (the full time workers), the stranger, the fatherless, the widow and those in need.

When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled; (Deut. 26:12)

Listen, this is God’s word, it says the tithe is meant to be used to support the worker and then it says to look after the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. So when it comes to a church, you want to be the type of congregation that is doing all these things. Here is how a church and its people are being regarded. Are they feeding the poor? Are they visiting the fatherless? Are they comforting the widows? Or are they gathering to themselves, building the tower of Babel?

I made a practice in this ministry right from the very beginning to take care of the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widow, the destitute, the alcoholic and the drug addict. We are doing it as a church and by God’s grace, we want to do more. No drug addict enjoys his life, he wants to get out of it. No alcoholic does either. They bang their heads on the wall and they beat themselves, they want to get out. God hears their cry, he sees their struggle and the only people that can go and empower them are you and I. And their numbers are increasing. So, the tithe is meant for this purpose and by God’s grace we want to fulfill it. Amen.

Recently somebody gave us 18 tons of spaghetti, good spaghetti - we had to get a truck to get it, forklift trucks to carry from the store. Somebody else gave us 12 tons of potatoes, truck after truck, and before that, somebody gave 10,000 cans of food. The strangest thing is, none of these people are believers, the believers are still praying about it. So much food stuff came until truly, we had no room to receive. God says, I will open the windows of heaven. A lady who runs a hair salon collects 100 bags of rice a month from her clients and sends them to us. How did these people know what we are doing? I don’t know and some of them I have not even met. So, God will open the windows of heaven, he will bring people into your life that you don’t know, and pour out blessings that you will not have enough room to receive. I can testify a hundred times over. Praise the Lord!

And the Levite, because he has no portion, nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. (Deut. 14:29)

The worker, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, they can eat and be satisfied.
It is not about giving them the leftover crumbs that are unwanted, sardine tins which expired 6 months ago. I want you to know in the midst of all the good food that comes our way, we also get rotten and expired food, rice and sometimes meehoon with cockroaches and insects inside. Some people bring us used clothes and before we wash and iron them, we check them and we find some have no buttons and some trousers have no zip! So we have a lot of sorting out to do because we don’t want to give to people in the name of Jesus, leftover and rotten food, torn clothes, shoes without soles, and other unmentionable things.

So, I urge you to trust God, I urge you to obey his word. We are bold enough to go into all kinds of ventures, undertake all kind of responsibilities because I believe as we obey, he will open the windows of heaven, he will bless us with things that money cannot buy - joy, peace, righteousness in the Holy Ghost shall be ours; things that we cannot purchase with money. If you are willing, and if you are obedient, you will eat the fruit of the land.

There is somebody you can empower and I leave it to you and God to wrestle because it’s your ground, it’s your gate, it’s your life. You obey the Lord and the Lord blesses you, if you don’t, then the devourer comes in.