Rules for Financial Blessing

Praise the Lord, Beloved, and Greetings in the Name of the One who said, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). The One who stated this was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is in His Name that I greet you.

Beloved, in continuance of our theme, “Rules for Financial Blessing” - we are still commenting on Rule #1: We must pay our tithes and offerings. We don’t wait until after we pay all our bills before thinking about paying our tithes out of what is left. First of all, not too many of us can say that all our bills are current, up-to-date, and paid up till the next month. The point is this - since we have to depend on God to one day exonerate (or relieve) us of all our debts anyway, why not make it easy on ourselves and please Him with our priorities in the way we dispense with our increase? Second,, when we honor God first with our income, He will always honor us with what we need.

Precious Ones, what I’m teaching you is clearly seen in the Book of Philippians. Many Christians are infatuated (extravagantly in love) with the scripture that says, “...my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19) - and understandably so. This scripture points out that there is no limit to what God will impart to His children. However, let us not overlook the events that took place before Paul made this statement to the church at Philippi. First, Paul acknowledged the priorities of the Philippian church - they had put Paul and his needs above their own. First, Paul said words such as these - “...ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction - now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only” (Philippians 4:14-15). Then, Paul went on to say, “But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received...the things which were sent from you” (Philippians 4:18). Make no mistake about it, Beloved - when we put God’s House, His servant (the Pastor) and His Kingdom business (church business) first, there is no limit to what God will do for us in return. But remember, if we fail to put God’s business first when it comes to investing our finances, the prophet Malachi says that we “are cursed with a curse” (Malachi 3:9). He even said that when we don’t put God first in spending our finances, we “rob God”. So, if we fall into this category, we must stop “robbing God” of His tithes and get out from under the curse.

I will write more on this subject next week. Until then, know this,
I love you all SO very much,
In His Love,
(Your servant and Bishop)
Pastor William L McCoy