Apr 18, '09 10:51 AM

By Regner Capener

This is the best day of your life; and today's going to get even better as it progresses! Yessirree, Bob!

So Good Morning already!

Corday Trick is a mortgage banker in Yakima, Washington. He and his fellow-banker, Bryan Jones, have been in the mortgage banking business for quite a few years. Unless you've been living on the planet Mars during the past year, you are well aware of the historic downward slide in the housing market and the colossal failures of mortgage lending institutions and banks. Mortgage bankers are a diminishing commodity these days with thousands of folks in the real estate and lending markets losing their jobs.

There is an important distinction to make here. As I've already noted in several previous Coffee Breaks, Babylon (Jesus referred to it as "Mammon") and its financial and economic system are headed for a soon-to-come complete collapse. The economy of the Babylonian system is imploding on itself, and while I believe we will see a brief period of respite for the sake of believers so they can get out of debt, we're not long before the whole world is in utter financial chaos as the entire world system of commerce & finance goes belly-up. Mammon has been serving itself and worshiping itself as the god of finance; and self-destruction is a matter of natural course.

Many of God's people are hearing the warning of God to get out of debt and to operate in an entirely different mode. Even some folks -- like Bill Winston, for example, who pastors the 18,000-member Living Word Christian Center in Forest Park, Illinois -- have decided to form banking and investment centers whose profits are used to fund missionaries, build churches around the world, provide business training and reeducation for people who've lost their jobs or need career changes, as well as providing housing, food and clothing for families in need.

Bill Winston did a study of the revenue that churches and ministries pass through the banking system in Chicago, and he determined that the monthly interest alone on those funds would build not less than forty new churches. He heard instruction from the Holy Spirit to begin forming a new banking institution that would operate apart from the world banking system, and chartered the Joseph School of Business which teaches folks how to operate in business, but operate on Kingdom principles instead of Mammon's greed; and to that end has graduated hundreds of men and women who are taking their place in God's economy.

Getting back to Corday and Bryan, they have an up-to-date testimony of what it means to live in today's world, functioning in banking and lending, but operating within the framework of the Kingdom of God instead of the Babylonian economy.

It was in the late summer or early fall of 2008 when these two men of God saw the housing market crash taking place and made a conscious decision to not participate in the fall of Babylon. As Corday was sharing with me a few days ago, he and Bryan decided to put it before the Lord and to declare that they were going to operate only on and in the economy of the Kingdom of God. They would tithe their increase in business, sow financial seed (as well as other kinds of seed) into the Kingdom, and utilize their anointings (there are several) in finance wherever and however the Holy Spirit instructed.

They gathered together daily for prayer (and still do today) asking for God's direction in what business they should take and what they should avoid. They kept their vows to the Lord concerning tithing and giving and sowing of seed.

Corday was telling me that when all the numbers were in for the last quarter of 2008, they had seen their best business quarter in all their years of mortgage banking and lending. And they saw it in the face of the financial ruin of other bankers and institutions who likewise engaged in the same kind of business, in the same city (or cities) and region they operate in. While many of their banking and lending cohorts were going under financially, they prospered and saw the abundance of the Lord as they had never seen.

In the months of January, February and March of 2009, Corday Trick and Bryan Jones have seen the best financial performance during the first quarter they have ever seen as the Lord continues to bless and multiply and expand their business -- AND their giving! And this is in the face of the worst housing sales slump since records began to be kept in 1961! Corday says they are giving more than they've ever given before in their lives, and the Lord just keeps multiplying it back to them.

Folks, God's multiplication far exceeds anything we can comprehend if we think and reason and operate as the world does. God gave the following command to His people, and this is key to understanding Kingdom Economics.

"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8:18)

Do you see that? The power to get wealth (the Hebrew word is chayil, which means: riches, substance, wealth, an abundance of resources) is not given just so we can consume it upon ourselves, but rather so that He can demonstrate to the world around us that He is a covenant-keeping God, so that He can establish (or prove) the truth of His Word and His promises to us through the Blessing of Abraham.

The Lord certainly has no problem with His people being rich -- and abundantly so -- but it is important that He receive from us the credit and praise and worship and recognition before the world. It is inherent in and integral to the economy of the Kingdom of God to show that the riches poured upon us have been given as the proof of His Covenant.

People who recognize the Lord as the source of their riches and abundance also realize that the key to becoming even more wealthy is to give and give and give. They also understand -- as some of America's wealthiest people have come to understand -- that if one doesn't tithe the first tenth of their increase, their giving will simply amount to throwing money away. You won't see the manifestation of God's blessing in the way He wants to manifest it because you are stealing from Him.

(In previous Coffee Breaks in this series, I’ve already told the stories of John D. Rockefeller, J. C. Penney and Sam Walton, how they tithed and how God blessed them exceedingly.)

Tithing is worship. (See Deuteronomy 26:10.) It is a deliberate act on the part of people to say to the Lord, "You are my Lord and my God! All that I have has come from You, and I will formally and openly acknowledge You as my Source by returning that portion You have designated as Holy and set apart for Your Purposes! In so doing, I engage Your Covenant of Blessing and believe that You are a Covenant-keeping God who will keep His Word to supply my every need -- above all I can ask or think!"

In K-E XXXV, we noted how reverencing (or touching) the Holy Portion has life and death consequences. To set aside the Holy Portion unto the Lord as He commands and not touch it -- even in the seeming face of an insufficient remnant to meet one's personal needs -- is to release Him to multiply that which remains into more than enough.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day and said to me, "If you will give me your "not enough," I will anoint and multiply that which remains into "more than enough." What a picture! What a promise! And Della and I continue to walk this Law of Tithing. Understand that this is not a law in the normal sense of the word: this is a Kingdom principle; it is a Law of Kingdom Economics.

This was the Law established in the Garden of Eden, and when God decided to start over again with the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel to display a Garden of Eden-existence available to the world, He commanded Moses and the Children of Israel to keep the same command He gave to Adam and Eve: "Don't touch the Holy Portion! Don't touch that which I've reserved unto myself. Even in the face of mourning (dire need -- see Deuteronomy 26:14), if you will honor me with your giving of the Holy Portion, you can command my Blessing upon your land and your houses and families and all that you have; and I will release that Blessing upon you."

In Deuteronomy 28, God made it clear that His Blessing would be so surpassing in its greatness that the world around would sit up and take notice. He made it abundantly clear that the Land of Promise would become a virtual duplicate of the Garden of Eden. He likewise made it clear that if Israel failed to keep His commandments -- and that included touching and/or eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (I'm paraphrasing, of course) -- they would become accursed in the land, they would lose His Blessing, they would lose their lives, they would lose their health and their protection from their enemies would disappear.

I know there are folks who really believe that tithing is strictly an Old Testament or Mosaic Law (read that "legalistic") concept, and that it disappeared with Jesus. Quite the contrary, Jesus commanded tithing. OK, I know it isn't obvious from our traditional English translations, but once you see it, you can't escape from it.

Take a look at Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42. When you first look at these verses (and they are parallel accounts of the same event) it almost appears as if Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for tithing, when in fact He is actually commanding it. Reading it in the original Greek text clarifies this.

The KJV reads like this:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

The Message Translation, however, comes across much more clearly.

"You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful tithing and bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required."

It is also rendered clearly and with specificity from the New Living Bible.

"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things."

Pretty clear, don't you think?

To the contrary, Jesus IS commanding tithing. You understand, do you not, that the anti-tithing doctrine which has contaminated the body of Christ is a deliberate effort of Satan to rob people of the Blessing and keep them poverty-stricken, in financial need, in poor health, always living life on the razor's edge, being welfare recipients instead of being the source of supply for others, etc., etc., ad nauseam?

Like many other folks, I was sucked into the anti-tithing doctrine for a number of years and saw the thief and the devourer steal many millions of dollars from me that should have been available to use for the Kingdom of God. It wasn't that I didn't give: I did give -- generously. But I wasn't reaping the Blessing because of my ignorance concerning the very basic and fundamental law of Kingdom Economics. When I finally awoke to the fact that I was opening the door to the devourer because I was using the Holy Portion and not offering it to the Lord in worship, I did some very tall repenting and asking the Lord for forgiveness.

To quote Jesse Duplantis, think about it like this! Satan is known throughout the Word as the Tempter. He continually seeks to tempt people to do that which is the exact opposite of what God's Word says. He tempts people to lie, to cheat, to steal, to kill, to be in strife, to worry, to fret, to be afraid, etc., etc. When's the last time you were tempted to tithe? Huh? Huh? Huh?

Now don't fall over on the floor laughing! Silly, isn't it? Seriously, do you think Satan would tempt you to tithe when he knows that tithers become recipients of the Blessing of the Lord? Think he's going to tempt you to tithe when your very act of tithing is worshiping the Lord and not him? Think Satan is going to tempt you to tithe when that very tithe will be used to enlarge the Kingdom of God at his expense?

Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho! Riiiiiiigghhhhttt!!!

Now for the sake of those folks who've been caught in the lie of Satan that there was no mention of tithing AFTER Jesus' death and resurrection, that also is well covered and documented in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Take a look at Hebrews 7:1-10: We'll look at couple of translations again, beginning with the KJV. The apostle Paul (we assume him to be the author) takes great pains to separate the principle of tithing from the Law of Moses and make abundantly clear that tithing functioned before the Law, and continues to this day even after the Law was fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him."

Here's the NIV rendering: "This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by Him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor."

My objective in sharing all this is not to hammer home some religious doctrine or ride some kind of hobby horse but rather to demonstrate that the Blessing of the Lord is directly tied to our recognition of and obedience to this very basic of spiritual principles. This is not about money -- even though money is involved. This is about walking in the Blessing and seeing it manifested tangibly.

This is about living as citizens of a Kingdom which is foreign to the kingdoms and thinking and reasoning of this world: the Kingdom of God.

More to come. See you in a few days.

If you will give the Lord your "not enough," He will anoint and multiply the remainder to become "more than enough"!

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22)

Be blessed!