Give It Up

“Honor the LORD with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase” (Proverbs 3:9).

The word, “honor” in Hebrew is “kabad” (kaw-bad), which means “to be heavy” i.e., "numerous, rich, honorable; causatively, to make weighty, be rich.”

Honor is not something that can just be accomplished with words. You can say, “I honor you” to someone, but true honor has substance and must be manifested.

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? said the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, that despise my name. And you say, Wherein have we despised your name?” (Malachi 1:6, AKJ, emphasis added).

We use Malachi 3:10 every Sunday morning to collect the tithe from the people in a church service. However, the book of Malachi was not written to saints; it was written to preachers! “And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you” (Malachi 2:1, emphasis added).

How is it that Abraham and Jacob understood the tithe, even before it was incorporated into the law? When Abraham returned from his battle with the kings in the valley of Siddim, the Scripture says that,

“…Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, …met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. And those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham. But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him” (Hebrews 7:1-10, emphasis added).

For countless years, the tithe has been not only misunderstood, but misplaced and often misapplied. Some people will randomly visit churches and decide that while they are there, they will pay their tithe. The problem with that is that there is no spiritual relationship there. The kingdom of God is governed by and through relationships.

The majority of believers think that their tithe goes into their local church, and out of the congregation’s tithes, a pre-determined portion or salary is to be given to the man of God who oversees the flock. The truth is that the Lord’s tithe was intended for the support of the ministry! “God set apart the tribe of Levi…to stand before him in the ministry…” (Duet. 10:8, DRB, emphasis added). The offerings of the people, not the tithes, were supposed to take care of the church property, etc.

People change churches today like they change their wardrobe. They go to one place for a while and then they go to another place for a while, and wherever they go, they tithe to that particular church. How can you reap a harvest if you are scattering your seed?

There is not one scriptural precedent for tithing to a Church or denomination! I reiterate, the Lord’s tithe was intended for the support of the ministry! The Levites were given the tithes of the people, and the Levites were to tithe to the ministering priests!

The bigger tragedy is that thousands of pastors today are tithing back into their own churches! That doesn’t even make any sense. It is like taking the money out of your left pocket and putting it into your right pocket. That is not tithing; that is re-investing.

Remember, the direction of our giving must always be “up.”

“…observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth” (Hebrews 7:4).

“…without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater” (Hebrews 7:7).

The direction of the anointing is “down” (Psalm 133).

It is a misplacement of the Lord’s tithe, for pastors to tithe “down” into their congregation or to a denominational headquarters. Tithes belong to the apostolic headship that God has set in authority over them. Thereby, connection is made to the headship, so the anointing can flow downward, in due order.

The problem is compounded even more so, as statistics show that the majority of preachers do not tithe. For some uncanny reason, they believe that “the buck stops here” and they are “the end of the line.” However according to the Scripture, the blessing upon the tithing of the people in a congregation is totally contingent on the leader’s obedience in “tithing on the tithe.”

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe. And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress. And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation” (Numbers 18:25-31, emphasis added).

Millions of people around the world tithe to their local church on a weekly basis and yet wonder why they are not being blessed. It is because the pastors are not obeying Malachi 3:10. It is only when the pastor “tithes on the tithe,” that the Lord will count the people as having given ALL to Him! Simply put, if the pastor does not properly tithe on the tithes that he has received, the people will not be blessed!

We must understand apostolic authority in the kingdom of God. The high priest of the Old Testament is equivalent to apostleship in the New Testament. The author of Hebrews called Jesus "the Apostle and High Priest of our profession" (Heb. 3:1). Both of these terms denote an overseeing father in ministry. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:19-20).

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man (mature manhood), to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we from now on be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16, emphasis added).

It is shocking to realize just how far removed we are from God’s original intention and purpose. Men have organized religion after corporations. They have substituted presidents for apostles, vice presidents for prophets, field representatives for evangelists, counselors for pastors and professors for teachers. We are two millenniums removed from the birth of the Church and we have still not fulfilled Jesus’ ultimate plan for the Church that He said He would build (Matthew 16:18) and that was for it to build the kingdom of God in the earth (Matthew 10:7)!

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever” (Psa. 133:1-4, NASB, emphasis added).

Impartation does not come by just hearing many different preachers say wonderful and powerful things in many diverse settings. Certainly we need the benefit of all of the five-faceted ministry for our maturation in the body of Christ. However, Elisha and Elijah demonstrate to us that true impartation of the anointing only comes by faithfully following a man of God (2 Kings 2:1-14) who is a “father” (2 Kings 2:12, emphasis added).

The apostle Paul said, “For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (I Cor. 4:15, emphasis added). Paul was a father in ministry to Timothy and Titus. Timothy was circumcised by Paul for the sake of the ministry. A true son in ministry will submit himself to the spiritual authority of and covenant himself with the man of God. Those with no fathers are bastards.

“But if you be without chastisement (discipline), whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons” (Hebrews 12:8).

Everyone in the kingdom is under authority. First and foremost, we are all under the authority of our King, Jesus. Secondarily, we are under and accountable to apostolic authority. There can be no maturation of ministry without it.

Find an apostolic ministry that you can submit to in the Spirit. When I say, "apostolic," I am not referring to a denomination or a particular belief system, but rather the nomenclature of the five-faceted ministry (Eph. 4:11). Be willing to let that ministry person speak truth and revelation into your life and, when necessary, even bring correction, or cut away (circumcise) your “flesh” so you may be holy, honorable and useable in the ministry. After carefully considering the maturity and longevity of that ministry, then give of your honor up to that ministry. That is how impartation works. The anointing always flows down from headship.

There is a terrible apperture in the household of God. Ministry fathers have not been given proper honor. There are those who say that I am their “father” in ministry. However, don’t call me your “father” unless you are willing to honor me and covenant yourself with me. Remember, honor has substance. It is more than just the mere expression of words or laudatory notice. I have spent a lifetime, raising up “sons” (a non-gender term) in ministry. I have prayed with them, wept with them and taught them powerful and glorious truth from the Word of God. I have even walked with some of them through dark and rocky places in their lives and relationships. Yet, only a very few of them show any honor today, and most, even sporadic at that. Many good men of God are suffering today in a breached order that does not give honor where honor is due.

“I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6, emphasis added).

Kingdom Relationships

“Everything in the kingdom of God is governed by and through relationships” (Apostle Richard Wright, “Not Many Fathers;” Copyright, 1993).

While I was in prayer early one morning in November of 2010, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “I will assimilate you with great men and people of like faith.”

I received the word of the Lord with joyous expectation but at the same time I began to process this locution to my heart.

My wife, Caroline, and I have a rich heritage. We have been blessed to know and rub shoulders with some of the greatest men of God of the twentieth century. Caroline grew up under the ministry of Jack Coe. She attended his church and his school in Dallas, Texas. She saw first-hand, the miracles wrought under the hands of this mighty man of God. Not only that, but she witnessed the ministries of men such as William Branham and others whom God superlatively used in the post-war Healing Revival of the late forties and early fifties.

Caroline and I attended many meetings of God’s miracle man, A. A. Allen. What a powerful man of God he was! We both loved him so much. I recall the last meeting we ever saw him at before his untimely death in 1970. He was preaching at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium in Ft. Worth, Texas. Caroline and I got there early so we could get a front-row seat. When he came out on the platform before the service, he saw me and walked to the edge of the platform (where I met him) and we spoke together. I introduced my soon-to-be wife to him and asked for his blessing. He came off the platform, laid his hands on us and prayed as only Bro. Allen could pray. It was a great service that night, and on the way home, Caroline said to me, “Brian, we will never see Bro. Allen on this earth again.” I was shocked! “No!” I replied, “You are mistaken.”

A few months later, it happened just as my precious wife had discerned. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of his sudden passing. I couldn’t believe it! I immediately called Miracle Valley and the office staff there confirmed it. I felt like my world was going to fall apart. I wept long and bitterly. Although I had never got to spend as much time with him as some others had, I knew him enough to know his heart and still remember the kind words he always spoke to me, whether it was in his home or sitting on his platform.

Our trek in ministry has often been like a roller coaster ride. For the past many years, I often felt like I was floundering, looking for that connection that would give asseveration to the call of God upon my life. During those seasons of ministry, at intervals I hooked up with various denominations and aligned myself with them so as to have a sense of correlation to or being a part of something other than my own. In most instances, much to my chagrin, I had to compromise my doctrinal stance which distressed my situation even more so. Like a corporate graphic depicting its progress, there were highs and there were lows.

Caroline and I have been in full-time ministry together (as husband and wife) for over forty-one years! Each of us respectively were involved in ministry before we were married. Together we have traveled the length and breadth of this great nation as well as Canada, preaching revivals and building churches. We have seen phenomenal moves of God, some that touched entire communities for the kingdom of God!

However, during all of the years of traveling, singing and preaching, we always felt somehow “disconnected.” Although, during those years, I was at times ordained with various major denominations, there was no relationship; only the sense of belonging to a religious system that lent some credence to what and who we were.

A few years ago, in desperation, I re-joined a major Pentecostal denomination. As I filled out the application forms for reinstatement, completed the examinations and was interviewed by those in authority, everything inside of me was screaming, “Don’t do it!” but I followed suit in spite of what my heart was telling me. This last-ditch attempt failed miserably and after only a year with the denomination, I finally said, “I’ve had enough,” and defected.

Alone again as a freelancer, I sought the face of God for direction. How the Holy Ghost orchestrated everything was strange and certainly inexplicable at first. In our “wilderness” wandering, Caroline and I felt ourselves drawn to apostolic settings. You see, I was raised in that environment, but in my ministerial journey I had surrendered some of my foundational credo to the theorems of the denominations that I served. Furthermore, although I had some powerful ministry fathers as a boy, my early experiences in apostolicism were not all “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

I remember telling some dear friends of mine at a Bible study that I was conducting, “I’m not sure what’s going on in our lives. All I can tell you is that we are on a journey.” I am pretty sure most of them did not understand what I was talking about, not because they lacked intelligence, but because it was mysterious to us as well.  The Holy Ghost was up to something, but we just had not figured it out yet.

As the past few years ensued, the Holy Ghost drove me back into the Word of God with intense study and prayer. The Lord instructed me to read His Word like I was reading it for the very first time and put aside some crendenda that I had been programmed to accept as truth. What it did to me belief system was of such enormity that for all these years I have kept silent about it. I knew that revealing what I had discovered, could potentially alienate friendships and ministerial relationships.

Even though I have read and studied the Bible since I was a child, with amazing clarity, the Spirit of God began to once again reveal the Book that He had authored and the impartance of it totally transformed my spiritual posture! The illumination of truth brought me back to the verity that God is one and not a trinity of persons (Duet. 6:4; Eph. 4:5; I Tim. 3:16). My eschatology changed from one that ends in defeat to one of glorious and ultimate victory! The book of Revelation became a new book to me. No longer was it a presentation of mystical and futuristric cataclysmic events such as an antichrist who is supposed to rule the world, together with a great tribulation that will plunge this planet into utter chaos and a secret rapture to pluck us out of here before all hell breaks loose.  Alternately, it became the glorious revelation of JESUS CHRIST and His victory over evil. I also discovered that, contrary to what many in old traditional Pentecostal settings have taught, you cannot dress up the flesh and make it holy. Holiness is the nature of God within in your spirit; not legislated legalisms for dress or adornment.

The word of the Lord to me back in November began coming to pass! One of the first persons to call me was a profoundly anointed man of God who has played the Hammond organ for some of the greatest preachers who have ever graced this planet! He has ministered in 58 countries of the world and is considered a friend to hundreds (perhaps, thousands) of preachers. I was thrilled to hear his voice on the phone, and as we conversed, we immediately became friends. Since that day, he has encouraged and edified me over and over again and he has yet to hear me preach (2 Cor. 5:16)! Other renowned men of God began calling me and speaking affirmation into my life. Since then, the Lord has not only been assimilating us with seasoned generals of God, but also associating us with those of like precious faith.

Most people in this postmodern era of Christendom do not understand the importance or the necessity of relationships in the Kingdom. Everyone just sort of “does their own thing” and sees no need for that divine connection or accountability to apostolic headship. “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:21).

Apostle Richard Wright from Milwaukee, Oregon called me a few days ago. His pleasant spirit and averment was so uplifting. In his book, “Not Many Sons,” he writes, “Before we ever become a man or woman of God, we must first become sons and daughters!” (page 21). He further talks about “Redefining Family” and says “that even though Timothy was an apostle, he still needed a father” (page 27). Paul was willing to be a father to Timothy, and he a son to Paul. “Timothy’s circumcision changed his identity from his natural father to his spiritual father” (page 26).

Jesus redefined “family” when His disciples said, “Behold Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You” (Matt. 12:47, NASB). Jesus “answered the one who was telling Him and said, Who is My mother and who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand towards His disciples, He said, Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt. 12: 48-50, NASB).

In Philippians 2, the apostle Paul wrote that Timothy had a “kindred spirit” and “you know of his proven worth haw he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father” (Phil. 2:22). The word “proven” is the Greek word “dokime,” which means “the process or result of trial; proving.” It means “a specimen of tried worth.” Their relationship had gone through trials and tests, but unlike Demas, who forsook Paul (2 Tim. 4:10), Timothy had proven himself faithful.

“Sons do the work of their fathers. They have the minds of their fathers and the same burdens. It is the goal of fathers to raise up their sons to carry on with the vision…to carry on their message when they themselves cannot be present. There was an impartation, not only through the laying on of Paul’s hands (2 Tim. 1:6), but there was an impartation through demonstration as Timothy watched Paul’s life and ministry…as Timothy observed Paul during times of trials, beatings, shipwreck and imprisonment, as well as times of ministry” (Apostle Richard Wright, “Not Many Sons;” page 30; Copyright, 2000).

The older I get, the more I realize just how vital kingdom relationships are. No man is an island. We all need each other. God has given each one of us a ministry that is necessary to the spreading of the kingdom of God in the earth. However, of necessity, we must repair the breaches in relationships (Malachi 4:6), so the will of God is done “in earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

When Deborah, that great judge of Israel, sent for Barak to help her defeat the Canaanitish king, Jabin, who had launched a harsh oppression on the people of God, he replied, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go" (Judges 4:8). Deborah said, “I will surely go with you…”