<< Week 27 >>
Go through the Study Guide by Dr. Kevin Zadai
Consider The Project given in this Lesson
Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
Do You want to be Blessed?
"Instead of thinking of what God is trying to get from you, think about what He is trying to get to you!"
~ Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
After you watch the video and read the study notes on this page, answer these questions here on the Blog mentioned above:
One-tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.
—Leviticus 27:30 (NLT)
DISCUSSION:
When it comes to tithing and giving, people have a hard time grasping the concept, and many of us have different opinions about it. In the New Testament, Jesus, when asked about tithing, agreed it was something you should do. Even the Pharisees gave one-tenth of the herbs in their garden, yet when it came to the weightier things of the
law like taking care of their parents or those in need, they wouldn't do it. Jesus said that you should do both and not neglect one without the other as both are important. (see Luke 11:42, Matthew 23:23).
Tithing brings about the promises of God. People are trying to decide whether or not tithing is Old Testament or New Testament. While they're arguing about that, my wife and I enjoy the benefits of tithing and being blessed by it because we don't see a problem with it at all. God has incentives for everything. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and there is a reward system in Heaven. It's not about us being slaves and doing what He says. It's about a relationship with God. Jesus said, I'm not calling you servants; I'm calling you friends. He said, my friends, know the deep, intimate secrets of the kingdom, whereas slaves would just be part of the house's workforce. Jesus is differentiating between friends and servants and slaves. In the Old Testament, they were the servants of God. In the New Testament, we are children of God. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus, and we need to start seeing ourselves as children of God and a part of His covenant. In the Old Testament, the law given to Moses for the people talks about tithing as being one-tenth of the land's produce belonging to the Lord, and it must be set apart to Him as
Holy. Leviticus 27:30 clearly shows that one-tenth was never theirs to keep. It was the Lord's portion. God is saying, can I have that back? You can keep ninety percent, and I get ten. What this does is keeps us seeking God as the source of our provision. It helps to strengthen us in our relationship with Him as being our provider.
o What does tithing have to do with our relationship with God?
GOD SENDS ABRAHAM
Moses wrote Genesis, but Abraham lived before Moses. Before Moses went up on the mountain to receive the law to tithe, Abraham was alive. He was in the Ur of the Chaldees, which was in southern Iraq and now Kuwait today. He was a Kuwaiti or an Iraqi, and he worshiped the moon god. God appeared to him and took him out of that situation and said, "I'm going to make you a nation, and I'm going to bless you. You're going to become the father of everyone." He obeyed God and left, not knowing where he was going. He went by faith. The Bible says he searched for a city whose builder and maker was God, and he saw Him who was invisible. In Genesis 13 it says, "So Abraham left Egypt, traveled north to the Negev along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned. Abraham was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. He becomes so big that he has an army that defeats all the kings, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. He fights and wins a massive war in the valley near the Dead Sea and becomes undefeated among many battles. He gains spoils from winning those battles and becomes wealthier. Moses hadn't been born yet, so there's no law established. Abraham meets a guy named Melchizedek that comes out of a town called Salem, which later becomes Jerusalem. No one knows Melchizedek, and there's no record of him being born or dying. He was a righteous king of God that reigned over Jerusalem, and according to the book of Hebrews, he's one who was like and unto Jesus Christ. Melchizedek came to meet Abraham, and when he did, Abraham gave him a tithe of everything he had just gotten from the spoils even though tithing wasn't known because the law hadn't been written yet on account of Moses not having been born.
Here is what was written of Melchizedek:
This Melchizedek has no father or mother and no record of any of his ancestors. He was never born, and he never died, but his life is like a picture of the Son of God, a King-Priest forever! Now let me show you proof of how great this Melchizedek is:
– Even though Abraham was the most honored and favored patriarch of all God's chosen ones, he gave a tithe of the spoils of battle to Melchizedek. It would be understandable if Melchizedek had been a Jewish priest, for later on God's people were required by law to support their priests financially, because the priests were their relatives and Abraham's descendants. But Melchizedek was not Abraham's Jewish relative, and yet Abraham still paid him a tithe.
– Melchizedek imparted a blessing on mighty Abraham, who had received the promises of God. And no one could deny the fact that the one who has the power to impart a blessing is superior to the one who receives it.
—Hebrews 7:3-7 TPT
• Melchizedek was even greater than Abraham, and Abraham honored him with a tithe before there was ever a law for tithing.
• Melchizedek came out with bread and wine to bless Abraham. It's a symbol of communion that we would partake of today and that the Lord partook of at the Last Supper.
• The one who has the power to impart a blessing was even greater than the one who received it.
• Melchizedek would be the one to impart the blessing upon Abraham.
• Abraham discerned that Melchizedek was perhaps a supernatural being. He was a representation of one of the sons of God, one of the Elohim, and one of the judges.
• At that time on the earth, mysterious things were going on to keep order. There were beings on the Earth that were part of God's ruling class of beings.
Melchizedek was one of those.
Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
• Abraham discerned that Melchizedek was greater than him, and he saw that he needed to honor God and did this without the law.
o What was at the root of the giving between Melchizedek and Abraham? How does this influence you to want to give towards others and God today?
GOD'S PROMISES
Malachi 3:6-12: "For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers, You have gone away from My ordinances. And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. "But you said, 'In what way shall we return?" "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. 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. "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.
God has made promises to His people, and He has not changed His mind. He said, "That is why you, Oh sons of Jacob, are not consumed." One of these promises is that you are still here as a whole, even though we have turned aside from the Father's ordinances and have not kept them. If we return to Him, He will return to us. God is asking would a man defraud and rob Him by withholding his tithes and offerings? In Leviticus, remember we said that the tithe is the Lord's, which means it was never really ours. God is said to them, "You robbed me and, now you are cursed." Bring all the tithes —the whole tenth of your income into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Prove me now. The word there in the King James, for prove, is test. God is saying something that He usually doesn't say. He says, "Go ahead and test me in this." In other words, I dare you; do you want to be blessed? He says, "prove me now by it and see if The Lord of hosts, The Lord of Heaven's armies will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out such a blessing that there shall be no room to receive it." Can you imagine a blessing where you're like, "Lord, you're going to have to give us another week because we'll need to rent some space since we have no more room for what you're giving us?
As Christians, we cannot deny that this verse is in the Bible, but people are sometimes afraid of the truth because it might cause them to change. We don't always like nor want change. We might be telling the Lord to throttle back because we can't take all that He has to give to us. It doesn't stop there. He goes on to say; I'm going to add something to it. I'm going to rebuke the devourer for you, and you're not going to have to. I'm going to rebuke him, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your garden or the fruit of your vine nor the time in the field, says the Lord of Angel Armies. All nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight, says the Lord of Hosts.
o What would it look like if you said to God, "Don't hold back anything from me, I want all that you have to give!"
God said that He was robbed of not only tithes but offerings as well. These appear to be two different things. It's the tenth of your earnings plus any kind of offerings you want to make. It's not talking solely about money. It's talking about whatever was the income at the time because they didn't have the same kind of monetary system that we have today. The people would present ten percent of their grain, ten percent of their flocks, or anything increase they had in their life. It was essentially ten percent of their income. God wants us to partner with Him in this and do what is right. Remember what happened with Cain. Cain did not do what was right in the eyes of God. Cain and Abel both brought their offering before the Lord, and God accepted one of the offerings, but the other was not. Cain's was the first fruit of the ground, and Abel's was his livestock's first fruit. To understand, you have to look at their parents Adam and Eve. God showed Adam and Eve that the offering must shed blood because He covered their bodies with the skins of animals. Which meant that the animals had to have died in the process, and that's how we acquired animal sacrifices. We see that later on, that blood must be shed for the atonement of our sin. A blood sacrifice has significance above what a fruit or grain offering could bring. You can see in the case of Cain that God was trying to get him to do the right thing, but he went against God.
1. Discuss: New Covenant giving/tithing and how God sees it as partnership and honor towards Him instead of how the Old Testament law defines giving.
2. Discuss: Doing the right thing with what God gives you. Is it because of Him that you receive all that you have? How does that affect what you give back to God?
3. If God requested that you give back ten percent that was never yours, to begin with, would you? Is that a law, or is it you just honoring God and worshipping Him with your giving?
4. Talk about how Abraham was not under a law, and yet he discerned that Melchizedek was probably a supernatural being representing one of the sons of God, one of the Elohim, and one of the judges.
5. How did Abraham honor the Lord by tithing to Melchizedek when there was no law in place?
6. Pray and invite God to come into your finances to help give you wisdom.
PRAYER:
Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you so much that you want to release your plenty into our friend's lives all over the world in Warrior Fellowships. And that Father, you want your people to prosper, and you want to help them with their finances so that they can help others. Lord God, I pray that you would just show yourself mighty, in a mighty way, Lord. And I thank you, Father, that you have given us wisdom in this time, in this session, in the name of Jesus, and I command every evil spirit to leave. Everyone all over the world, I command healing to come forth and wisdom and revelation to come forth and open Heaven over all the Warrior Fellowships in the name of Jesus.
