How to Prove that God is Real and Turn Your Financial Problems Around - Part 5
It is important for us to give 10% of our income to God, but what does that include?
*“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first and best part of ****all your income. ***Then your barns will be full, and your vats will overflow with fresh wine.”—Proverbs 3:9-10 (GW)
“Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.”—Deuteronomy 14:22 (KJV)
“A tenth of everything the land produces belongs to the Lord. That includes grain from the soil and fruit from the trees. It is holy. It is set apart for him.”—Leviticus 27:30 (NIRV)
Another version says it this way:
“Ten percent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees.”—Leviticus 27:30 (CEV)
The tithe is 10% of ALL of your income. That includes 10% of the money you earn, as well as 10% of your profits on investments.
For example, If you buy a house for $100,000, and then sell it later for $110,000, you made $10,000 profit on that investment. Ten percent of that $10,000 profit ($1,000) belongs to the Lord as the tithe on your profits.
As another example, if your dog has puppies, and you sell a puppy for $100, then $10 from that sale, which is 10% of the profit, belongs to the Lord as the tithe.
All Your Increase — Not Just Money
If you gain in a particular area other than money, for example if you receive property through an inheritance, that is income. You do not have to physically cut out a tenth of the land, or a tenth the building, and give that part of the property. You can give 10% of the value of the property.
Deuteronomy 14 gives us guidelines for what to do about tithing on increases in property or other things besides money.
“Now the way may be distant from you, so that you are unable to transport your tithe because you have been blessed by the Lord your God and the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name may be distant from you. In that case, convert it into cash, secure the money, and then bring it to the place where the Lord will choose.”—Deuteronomy 14:24-25 (ISV)
What about Gifts?
The Bible is clear that 10% of all of our income belongs to God and should be given as the tithe. This includes gifts that we receive. The people of Israel were instructed to bring tithes to the Levites. The Levites received these tithes as gifts. These Levites were then instructed by God to give 10% of all of these gifts back to Him as their tithe.
“And the Lord said to Moses,
*“Moreover, you shall say to the Levites, When you take from the Israelites the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then *you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, even a tenth of the tithe [paid by the people].
“And what you lift out and keep [your heave offering] shall be credited to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor or as the fully ripe produce of the vine.
“Likewise you shall also present an offering to the Lord of all your tithes which you receive from the Israelites; and therefore you shall give this heave offering [lifted out and kept] for the Lord to Aaron the priest.
“Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every offering due to the Lord, of all the best of it, even the hallowed part lifted out and held back out of it [for the Levites].
“Therefore you shall say to them, When you have lifted out and held back the best from it [and presented it to the Lord by giving it to yourselves, the Levites], then it shall be counted to [you] the Levites just as if it were the increase of the threshing floor or of the winepress.
“And you may eat it in every place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your service in the Tent of Meeting.
“And you shall be guilty of no sin by reason of it when you have lifted out and held back the best of it; neither shall you have polluted the holy things of the Israelites, neither shall you die [because of it].”—Numbers 18:25-32 (AMPC)
“And we shall bring the tithes from our ground to the Levites, for they, the Levites, collect the tithes in all our rural towns. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when [they] receive tithes, and [they] shall bring one-tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, into the storehouse.”—Nehemiah 10:37-38 (AMPC)
In one month, for example, I won an electronic device at a banquet. I sold it and tithed on the profits from selling that gift. I was also given a $25 gift card for gasoline from my car dealer, and I was given a $25 gift card after participating in a taste test for a restaurant chain. I gave 10% of the value of those cards back to God for all of that increase. 10% of any gifts you are given or money that you take in through fund-raising efforts belongs to God as His tithe.
I’ve known of situations in which people had fund-raising campaigns to support mission trips. They may have taken in thousands of dollars to support their trip, but they never thought to tithe on the money that came in. Then they expected God to bless their mission trip as they withheld the 10% that was due to Him. They did not realize that they were actually funding their mission trip, in part, with money they had stolen from God.
Later, when the bus broke down, or team members got sick, they may have blamed this on spiritual warfare. In reality, since they had not paid the tithes that they owed to God from their fund-raising income, the Devourer was not rebuked by God, and was free to devour their time and money with unexpected repairs and health-care costs (Malachi 3:11).
A few years ago, I was given a large amount of money as a gift. A few weeks after I received this gift, my dentist referred me to a specialist who recommended an expensive gum-grafting surgery that would not be covered by my insurance. I would have to pay over $10,000 out of my own pocket. I wasn’t sure that I needed the surgery, but because my dentist referred me, and this specialist recommended it, I trusted them and agreed to have the surgery. I really had to scramble to come up with the money to pay for this operation.
I didn’t understand why this was happening. It was very unusual for me to have expensive, unexpected medical expenses. It puzzled me for a long time.
Then after a day of fasting and spending time with the Lord for a different reason, it finally dawned on me that I had never paid the tithes on that large gift I had received several weeks earlier! Then it all made sense! I gathered up some money to cover 10% of that large gift and paid that tithe at the first opportunity.
Since I paid that tithe, I have not experienced any more of those kinds of unusually expensive, unexpected expenses—for health issues or anything else.
As a footnote, after my last checkup, my dentist expressed some concern about the health of my gums and sent me back to the same specialist again to determine if I might need more gum-grafting surgery. I felt really confused. “Not again!” I thought. “I’ve already been through this! I corrected the problem of not paying the tithe, and I’ve paid my tithes faithfully since then. Why is this happening?” I couldn’t figure it out.
But when I visited the specialist this time, after my examination, the doctor told me that he would not recommend additional surgery. It was a relief to know that, after being faithful to pay my tithes regularly, the Devourer had been rebuked by God and was no longer free to swallow up my money with additional medical costs!