If God uses a man and that anointing is on him, whether he uses this correctly or incorrectly, it doesn’t matter, there’s an anointing on him. His gifting and his calling is working and you can’t speak against that. These young guys (in Rhema) had lots to say (about Pastor Ray). I told them, “If your anointing is so strong and you have such strong opinions about Pastor Ray, why don’t you serve him and help see what problems he faces in running such a big ministry. Then if you become a solution to his problems, then you may earn the right to speak into his life and have anything to say about the problems that he solves. Until then, don’t cause division, don’t have things to say, don’t have all these comments and opinions about how you think things should be done.”
When Abraham gave a tenth, he was doing it because of covenant, not because of law, not because of illegitimate spoils, but because of covenant; because of relationship. Melchezidek broke bread and wine. Years later, this signified the death of Jesus, the breaking of His body, the shedding of His blood. Even now, Corinthians says that we should participate in the Lord’s table and remember His death until He comes. We do that by eating the bread and drinking the wine as a representation of His body and His blood.
If you think that the enemy of God is not going to contest your offering and what you’ve got to give to God, you are mistaken. It’s the reason why the message of the tithe is so challenged and so spoken against everywhere.
Tithing is a covenant connector. Tithing is a covenant, it’s not a thing that you have to give money to me or to the church or to anything that’s going on. Tithing shows God that you recognise that He’s covenanted with you in all matters of your life.
Malachi 3 says He will purify the Levites. The fivefold ministry is a New Testament model of the Levites. If you think God will just allow people to preach in the pulpit and be authoritarian and do whatever they want to do and not purify them and not correct them, He’s telling you here that He will do it. That’s why, don’t wish yourself into a position of fivefold ministry. Let God call you into it because He would have to grace you to it because you need the grace to stand here.
Fivefold ministry is about God’s calling and gifting and anointing; it’s not about communication. If you stand in a pulpit trying to teach people about God that you’re not called to do, it will burn you. It is the reason why many preachers quit the ministry because they haven’t got the capacity and the capability, the calling, the anointing. They’re not called to the fivefold ministry.
For many years, the church presented the pulpit and the fivefold ministry as the highest form of life that anybody could live. I never believed that. A disciple is the greatest form of Christian that you can be.
The order of God is higher than the order of men. You have to choose the order of God rather than the order of men. The way this ministry worked with Luke and Ester – we encouraged them, we invited them to build a solid, strong friendship; build it in the Word, build it in God, build it with a solid foundation. They grew in ways that take most people that get married, it takes them 10 years to build what they built before they got married. Because they didn’t have the rubbish of, “Every time we get together, we’ve got to get passionate.”
Somebody who doesn’t understand what’s going on here that wants to do it the world’s way. They accuse Pastor John of being too authoritarian, too strict. I have no authority. I had no authority in Luke’s life or Ester’s life except what they gave me. They wanted to have God in their lives, so they said, “We will receive your counsel.” They are the first of many that are going to be like that. God is raising up a people here, that when they get married and start to live together as husband and wife, they come with God’s anointing in their relationship.
God’s a covenant God and it doesn’t matter what the world says about tithing. People have got a lot of opinions about tithes and about giving to the church and how it’s abused and how it’s an Old Testament thing. The only reason they say that is because they have made a choice they don’t want to tithe. So they will find all kinds of reasons to speak against it.
When you make a covenant before God about your finances you say, “I see there’s a covenant principle. I see there’s a covenant of God’s order and I’m making a decision to be in covenant with God that I’m going to put Him in my money by giving Him my tithe.” You are recognising His authority. You’re recognising His Lordship. You’re recognising His power and authority. You might not see all of the results immediately. Just like Luke and Ester had to wait till they got married before they consummated their union. And if you’re in the world you’d say, “But that’s old school, old fashioned nonsense.” Which young people want to do that anymore? There are some.
There’s not going to be an immediate thing of, “Look how different their lives are.” But they’ve unlocked an anointing and they’ve unlocked the wisdom of God that they don’t even yet know the fullness of what’s coming to them by God. But the wisdom and the anointing of God and the love of God is all over them.
There are many people that say, “What is the point of having a marriage God’s way? Because look at all the people that don’t do marriage God’s way. They just live together and enjoy all the benefits. And they don’t have any of God’s wrath on them and they don’t suffer any harm and they don’t have any of those issues in the world. So what’s the point of doing it God’s way when quite clearly those people, we call them arrogant, we call those people blessed because they have no punishment coming from God because they do what they want.”
So look at what Luke and Ester have done. They said, “We’re going to do it God’s way. We’re going to bring God’s order.” They have honored His name because of the way they did it. I’m here for the order and the honor of God.
Then God says, “Let’s write a scroll of all the conversations that Luke and Ester had where they had opportunities to go their own way and they said “We’re going God’s way.” The scroll is still being written for the rest of their lives. As long as they serve God, that scroll will be written. Don’t you want to have a relationship like that?
The reason Pastor Sharon and I have the marriage that we have is because I said, “Lord, I’m going to obey Your order. And I’m going to love her as Christ loves the Church and I’m going to give myself to her.” From that day to this day, the scroll is still being written about how I’ve loved her and I’ve served her and I’ve given my life for her. And I’ve washed her with the water of the Word and I’ve presented her to myself with glorious splendor. She has no spot or blemish under my covering of the words of God that I’ve spoken over her life. She’s blessed, protected and God has honored her. He’s honored me because His life is in her and we together represent Jesus Christ and the Church. And the scroll is being written because we have obeyed Him because there’s a covenant that we honor with God.
Relationships are going to get more important, not less. And people are going to have less ability to have relationships. They’re going to find themselves floundering. That culture, the world’s influence, will so infiltrate our thinking, our speech and the way that we deal with each other. It’s already this way. Many churches no longer preach that there’s an order that you don’t sleep together before you get married. The culture of the world has infiltrated the Church to such a level that the Church doesn’t know what’s right and wrong anymore. The blessing is in the covenant. The blessing is in the order of God.
I’m confident of this. As long as I am talking about how I fear God and I live for Him, then I can say, “Let the covenant speak.” Let the honor of God speak. Let your walk with God, let it speak. And not for one minute should you quit speaking that God is for you and He’s not against you. He is your covenant God. He is the One who established the rights of the covenant. He wants you to live in His covenant. He wants all the blessings of the covenant to be yours to have.
It doesn’t matter what’s happening in the world. God will protect you. God will stand with you. God’s order will be the thing that preserves you.
I say: Thank You, Lord, for a seed that we sow. Thank You for the covenant of tithing. Thank You for blessing us with the ability to give to You because our trust is in You, Lord. And we are so grateful that we can put all of our trust in You. I ask You to multiply the seed that has been sown and according to Your covenant, Father, I declare that wherever income is lost because of any reason whatsoever, that You will make up the lost income, in Jesus’ name.
© 2024 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
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