Malachi 3 gives us the background for God’s financial plan. You see, there is no receiving without giving. That is just a divine law, and it works in every area of life, whether you are a Christian or not.

The Bible calls it the law of sowing and reaping. And no matter what you sow, you will reap a result — and the reaping is always multiplied from what you sowed. You cannot sow one corn seed and get a stalk with only one grain of corn on it. You get several ears with many grains. There is multiplication in sowing and reaping.

So if you want to receive from God, you have to sow into the things of God.

It is important that a person not become mercenary about this. We want our motive to be that we love our Father because we appreciate what He has done for us. He took us when nobody else wanted us. When the world was kicking our backsides and telling us we were unworthy and that we did not measure up, the Father God took us in as we were.

He did not tell us to clean up first and then come. He took us dirty, failures, messed up, scared, defeated, whipped. He took us in and He loved us, not because of us, but in spite of us. So, out of gratitude, out of love, and out of a desire to be obedient, we should want to give — not to get, but out of love and obedience.

Now once our purpose and reason for giving is settled, then we would be foolish if we did not take advantage of what God has built into the system to be a channel to bless us so that we could become a blessing.

He made the statements in Malachi for the Israelites, but it applies to all generations:

Malachi 3:10-11:

"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."

 

Here is God Almighty giving us a challenge. Challenging us in the one place where we have the greatest degree of problems, and that is with our finances. Most people do not want to turn their money loose quickly. And most people do not have enough of it. They want more. They are trying to get more.

God made a covenant that says He is going to bless us so that we can become a blessing. Realistically, you cannot afford to give away what you do not have. So if your own needs are going unmet, it is somewhat fallacious to meet someone else’s needs.

Sometimes Christians get this euphoric idea of thinking things are going to fall out of heaven, but money comes through the hands of men.

Because of Adam’s rebellion and failure to follow the things of God, it caused the control and the dominion of things like money, gold and silver to fall into the hands of the person we call Satan. So what God has been attempting to do through the years is regain control of that wealth so that His covenant can be established. But Satan has very cleverly infiltrated denominations, theology, and tradition, and has sold the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ a bill of goods.

He has tricked the Church into believing that there is something intrinsically godly about deprivation and poverty. He tells them that they will get theirs on the other side, so they really should not be concerned about getting any more in this life than just enough to barely make it. And while he is saying that, he (Satan) and his cohorts are controlling the world and using up the resources that the Father put here for His people. Instead of the children of God getting the benefit out of it, Satan gets the benefit out of it.

So that is the backdrop for all that we are talking about in terms of God’s financial plan.

You have no idea until you get there about the joy in being able to afford the things that you need and desire.

I do not care if you are making $100,000 a year. If you are not careful, you will end up living up to your $100,000 and still be just as whipped and strapped as somebody who only makes $10,000 a year.

If you do not learn to operate in the principles of God’s Word, Satan will keep you on a treadmill, just like a guinea pig on a treadmill, never getting where you want to go.

So we need to learn how to become financially independent of the circumstances.

The economic systems are controlled by satanic influence. That is why the distribution of the wealth is so unequal. You can see that God has nothing to do with it, because if He did, then all the millionaires would be Christians — not sinners. Then God could speak to their hearts to have them do deeds that would help humanity.

The Body of Christ has to come to a place where we can gain back the wealth so that we can distribute it and allow God to establish His covenant.

Tithing is the trigger of the gun, so to speak, that releases the projectile of prosperity.

If you can believe that the 23rd Psalm, which is found in the Old Testament, is for us today, then why can't you believe that tithing is for New Covenant people? In other words, if you are going to accept one facet of truth from the Old Covenant, then you must be fair and willing at least to accept other facets of truth.

God made that statement in Malachi 3 to the children of Israel. However, its truth is for all generations of Believers, up until the time that Jesus returns to visibly and physically set up His earthly Kingdom.

Look at Mark 16:17:

"In My name they will cast out demons…."

 

There is only one devil, but there are many demons. Notice in that verse it does not say anything about what God is going to do with those demons. It says, … these signs will follow them that believe: In My name they will cast out demons…. Who shall? The Believer. Not God, not Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. Believers.

Ephesians 4:27:

Nor give place to the devil.

 

Who is supposed to not give place? Christians. In other words, He is telling us that the devil cannot have a place unless we give it to him.

James 4:7:

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

 

Notice in all three cases, it is up to the Believer to do something about the devil or demons. However, in Malachi, God is saying that He will take care of the devil. But He cannot and He will not take care of the devil unless you get involved relative to your finances.

If you bring the tithe into the storehouse, He said, "I will…" He did not tell you to resist the devil at that point. He does not tell you to "give him no place" at that point. And He does not tell you to cast him out. He says if you will bring the tithe into the storehouse, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..."

When you have God on your side, you have somebody on your side! Can you understand that? But it is only in reference to tithing.

What did it say about the ground? He will not destroy the fruit of your ground. Remember, Israel was an agrarian society, sheepherders. They lived off the land. We do not live off the land — at least most of us do not. Our ground is not the field, or the cattle. Our ground is the computer, the service station, the bakery, the meat market, the car lot. Our ground is wherever we lawfully earn our living. We plant our labor, we plant our time, we plant our energy and we get a harvest in return — our paycheck every week or every month. That’s our harvest.

I can look back over my own life and see the times when I made money and that money quickly disappeared. It seemed as if it was never enough, no matter how much I got. It seemed that something would happen every minute to take that money. If I got a little extra, something would break down. That is how Satan can get into your circumstances and steal the fruit of your ground — the money you have earned.

I want you to see something here: If God Almighty is the one who will rebuke the devourer, then God Almighty must not be the devourer. God is not your problem, but He has been blamed for it.

In Malachi 3:11, it says: "I will rebuke the devourer...." So there must be a devourer.

… rebuke the devourer ... and he will not.…

 

Notice the Scripture does not say it shall not, but rather, "he will not..." That’s a personal pronoun. That is talking about a person. It is talking about Satan. He is the one who will destroy your fruit. He is the one who would steal from you. Jesus said he was a thief, a robber, and a murderer from the very beginning.

He will steal your finances. You can work your fingers to the bone and never have enough if you are not a tither. You should not decide to tithe simply because God will rebuke the devourer for you. You should tithe because (1) it is right to do it, (2) you say you love Him and you want to be obedient, and, (3) this is God’s financial plan. You want to operate in the context of His plan and tithing is part of that plan. Tithing is at the crux of it. In tithing, Satan’s power is broken over you financially. Remember, the tithe belongs to God.

Malachi 3:8:

"Will a man rob God?

Yet you have robbed Me!

But you say,

‘In what way have we robbed You?’

In tithes and offerings."

 

If you are not tithing, you are a God-robber and should be arrested and put in jail. Isn’t that what we do with people who rob banks?

Look at Verse 9 and you will understand the possible reason for any financial dilemma you may be having:

"You are cursed with a curse,

For you have robbed Me,

Even this whole nation."

 

I lived that out in my own life for years and I did not understand what was happening. I thought it was the system, I thought it was the white folk. No point in lying about it, that is what I thought. They had all the money and I did not have any. I figured they were the ones doing it to me. I found out they were not the ones, they were not the problem. It is not the black ones or the white ones or the red, brown or green ones! It is Satan who is the problem, but he has no place in you unless you give it to him. And the way you give it to him is by your disobedience and unwillingness to do it God’s way.

Disobedience opens the door and allows Satan to back his truck up into your life and haul off everything that belongs to you.

I do not care how much I worked. If I worked overtime, the overtime got eaten up and did not do that much good. I still didn’t have enough. You know why? I was robbing God, and as a result I was operating under the curse and didn’t even know it.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse — even if you do not know something. It will still work against you. You can walk through a real dark room and not realize it has no flooring, not knowing it has a 300-foot hole, yet you are still going down, 300 feet a minute. So ignorance of the law is no excuse.