Acts of Grace 2
POWER TO EMPOWER COMPLETELY- Part 2
By Pastor Henry

The year 2010 being the tenth year will be a time where God will constantly remind you of your tithes. The tithe will become an issue with many believers. But the tithe did not come under the Law; it existed way back before the Law came into being. It was so important that God included it in the Law and taught the Israelites to tithe, in order to make Israel the nation it will become later. The tithe represented the whole of what was due from man to God, recognizing the whole and complete claim that God has over all.

When I tithe, I’m saying, “God, I’m recognizing your claim over all. I recognize that all I have comes from you and so I honour you.” God is not asking for everything you have. He just says to honour him with the bit, the first tenth. The word tithe does not mean the leftover. The tithe does not mean the last ten percent. It means the first ten percent. And I don’t believe ten percent belongs to God, I believe all belongs to God. This is the financial covenant that we have with God. This is where provision is released for our vision because we come before the Lord on a regular basis, reminding ourselves that everything we have belongs to him.

The self-seeking will continue to hoard their wealth and it will turn against them as a witness - room will be given to the enemy to destroy and devour everything they have attained. I’ve spoken to quite a number of millionaires and multi-millionaires recently and many of them say, “We regret we did not give our money out” and “We regret we did not sow because the past one, two years, we have lost millions” – and collectively, they have lost billions. When you hoard your wealth, the scripture says it works against you. It becomes a witness and a testimony against you. If you read the papers, especially in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and even in our country, there are many cases of suicide amongst people who have lost a lot of money because they chose to hoard it and not to release. When you release, God begins to open the heavens and pour out blessings upon you.

Tithes are to be used for feeding the poor and needy, in clothing and housing the homeless and immigrants, orphans and poor widows - and this is not done sufficiently by the global church. I don’t know of any church in Malaysia or Singapore that uses their tithes and offerings to meet the needs of the needy. And you say, “Pastor, where did you get the idea?” It is found in the scriptures when God says the tithes that comes into the church were meant to support those that serve the Lord in the ministry and to be used to clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, the fatherless, the poor widows and for all who are in need.

That’s why in the book of Acts we see the reason the church organized itself. The only reason for the church to have a business meeting was when they chose leaders who could devote themselves to serve the poor, feed the widows and look after the orphans on a daily basis. They fed them daily. The leaders in the church were chosen so that they could cook and prepare the table to feed the multitude. This job God has given to the church but today, churches do not do it. But I thank God, by God’s grace, Grace Assembly is trying to do it. Today, we provide some 2000 meals a day, and we are influencing many people in this area and many are beginning to do this as well.

“The poor,” Jesus said, “will always be with you.” And he has given the church, not the government, the mandate to feed and take care of the poor. That’s why the governments of nations worldwide have met with failure in this aspect. God gave the mandate to the church but where does the money come from? He says, “Your tithes, your offerings, your giving, these shall be used to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.” Sad to say, out of the 70 billion people on this planet, one billion live under the poverty line. Never in the history of the world are there so many people going to bed with an empty stomach. It’s sad but we have reached this tragic place right now and it’s going to get worse.

So, what are we doing, what are the churches doing today? What are people doing today in the name of God? Building their tower of Babel, building their ivory towers as tourist attractions, all locked up just like in the days of Nimrod. God will bring it all down. God will expose Nimrod. God will bring the tower of Babel down because God has told them to go into all the world. God says “Go”, but man says, “Come.” God says, “Scatter” but man says, “Gather.” God says, “Give” but man says “Keep.”
We are always saying the opposite of what God says but Jesus came and he showed us why we need to go into all the world and do what God has commanded us to do.

When we obey God on this, we will begin to see miracles take place.