Dear friends of Elijah List Ministries/ELIJAH STREAMS TV.
I've got a great question for you!
Are you just like me, in that one time or another in the past, you decided that Tithing in the New Testament Church was no longer a requirement by God?
Yes! There was a time where I "realized" tithing was not required — plus I looked around and decided that the local church was not properly utilizing the money I gave to them, so
"Why should I tithe?
Does that sound familiar to you? Even a little bit?
Those days are OVER! Long ago OVER!
So—how in the world did Derene and I get to the place where we give, not only a full 10% tithe off the gross amount of our paycheck but —we now also double that amount of giving each month.
"Why would you do that?" you ask.
HOW DID WE GET TO PAYING 20% OF OUR INCOME TO THE LORD?
I know you don't want a long, wordy Bible study. You just want the bottom line, so here it is...
When we've paid even a regular tithe — just 10% of our income, our money always seemed to stretch further than when we didn't. That's just the bottom line. Even when I wasn't sure we were required to pay 10%, we did it anyway and money lasted longer and at the same time, crucial financial problems always seemed to work out, at least in the long run.
Pondering that back then, I thought of Malachi, the very last few pages of the entire Old Testament where God told His people they were "ROBBING GOD" by not tithing. It seemed an odd thing to close out the entire Old Testament with that message from God— if we were no longer asked by God to tithe in the New Testament era.
| Malachi 3:10 New International Version (NIV) "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." |
I just could not understand how or why God would promise such a blessing for tithing, and then tell us that in the next chapter (Matthew) that it no longer mattered and it no longer was robbing God.
WHERE I LEARNED NOT TO TITHE— AT LEAST NOT VERY MUCH But my father, by his own example, always paid the least possible amount he could "get away with" — he made sure he only tithed on the net amount in his take home check. I realized, even as a young boy that he was being stingy to God and his actions showed NO FAITH nor generosity toward God.
So when I got back to tithing, I knew I wanted to NOT be stingy with the LORD — because of course, being "stingy" was the exact opposite of being generous - but God had always been generous in His blessings with my family.
WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE MIRACLE STORIES? As time went by, I was VERY IMPRESSED with stories by others who gave purposely, generously, and sacrificially to the Lord! They would not only say, "You can't out give the Lord" but they would tell stories about the miracles they experienced when they gave even more generously than 10% to the Lord.
So my wife and I began to "amp up" the amount we gave. We did it slowly but we just kept increasing the amount.
Our first 10% always went to our local church as long as we attended a local church. That practice continues to this day. Eventually we got our giving up to 20% of our gross income!
SO WHAT HAPPPENED? The more we gave, the more finances came in. And the more we gave, the less financial emergencies we had. The money just kept coming in along with fresh ideas, CLEARLY FROM HEAVEN I received — to grow both the ministry and even our personal income.
Some of you remember my SKUNK INVASION STORY...
THE SHORT VERSION... The entire underneath of our house, the ducts, the air conditioning, the insulation, were all destroyed and permeated with skunk odors as a large family of skunks moved in.
The insurance company would not pay for the damages. They said our policy did not cover that kind of damages. I felt that our policy MUST have covered that but they insisted we are not covered for skunk damage. We took it to the Lord and reminded Him that we were double tithing (As IF God needs to be reminded). We felt we needed to contend with God on this very issue.
After that discussion with God—again reminding Him that my wife and I have been faithful to give tithes and offerings, I tried one LAST time with the insurance company to get them to pay. I'd already tried many times. I called up my agent and made a final appeal.
SUDDENLY the Insurance man said, "Steve would you like me to submit a claim for these damages?"
"YES I WOULD," I almost shouted. The result? The insurance company paid for the entire amount of skunk damage which was MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!
God is faithful! When we give generously to Him, HE then gives generously to us. Take it to the bank, LITERALLY.
DID YOU KNOW IT'S HARD TO GIVE A DOUBLE TITHE? The HARD part of giving an extra 10% (to make it a full 20% of our income) is the EFFORT TO CHOOSE WHICH MINISTRIES TO GIVE TO.
Now, each month, Derene will say, "Honey we need to decide who this money goes to this pay period."
"Wow, it's time to do that again? We just did that!" I would say.
I think right now we probably split our giving among maybe 10-15 other ministries. One month we give to a few ministries. Then the next month we give to 2-3 other ministries!
Then you know what's strange?
Those giving times, every two weeks, become kind of hard to pick and choose. Even when we have 15 ministries, we try to think of other ministries who are really "doing the stuff" for God. It can actually be hard to pick new ministries because we want to be sure we LOVE what the ministry is doing for the Body of Christ.
Giving to our local church is quick and easy. It's that other 10% that is hard to give away because it takes more work to decide who gets the donations this month!
We make sure we split it among those who help the poor, those who minister for or in Israel, and in every case, we give to ministries who are setting people FREE in one way or another, and I mean LITERALLY SETTING PEOPLE FREE. We even give to those ministries who help in the area of trafficked children!
No matter how much we give, God just keeps pouring blessings on us. It's no longer an issue if Tithing is required or not. NOT EVEN A QUESTION...
Instead, I can say, "My experience is that I've tried it both ways. I've tried not giving and I've tried giving a double tithe. I can tell you that the more I've given to the Lord, the more He has blessed our ministry and family! It's true, that you can't out give the Lord.
I do encourage people to tithe to their local church. It's interesting that these days, many don't even have a local church.
IS ELIJAH LIST MINISTRIES AND ELIJAH STREAMS SETTING PEOPLE FREE? Why give to this ministry?
The prophetic revelation that is going out from here, goes all over the earth. We're now translated into German, French and Spanish with other languages, such as Korean being worked out as we speak.
Now, we've just signed with GodTV and with the FaithUSA channel on Dish Network to our program, ELIJAH STREAM and we're negotiating with even bigger networks.
Our greatest expense these day, (beside payroll) is the cost to produce the Prophetic TV program, called ELIJAH STREAMS and then the cost to buy air time! Air time on several different networks can be extremely expensive.
Will you consider helping us buy more air time to get God's encouraging prophetic revelation to be broadcast throughout the world? Your gift is 100% tax deductible and we take seriously the stewardship of the money that is donated to this ministry!
We are truly setting people free by publishing and broadcasting encouraging prophetic revelation from the Lord. We are "good soil" to sow your money into. And did you know something?
NOT ONLY will you be blessed on earth, NOW, in this very season because of your generosity but Heaven is recording your generosity for your future rewards too. Check this out...
| Philippians 4:16+ Amplified "For even in Thessalonica you sent [me contributions] for my needs, not only once but a second time. Not that I seek or am eager for [your] gift, but I do seek and am eager for the fruit which increases to your credit [the harvest of blessing that is accumulating to your account]." |
That's right, your account in Heaven has God's rewards being deposited for you!
Thank you in advance for making your most generous gift to ELIJAH STREAMS today!
| |  Click here to donate
with PayPal. |
| | Click here to donate by credit card or eCheck. |
Give a Monthly Gift ELIJAH LIST MINISTRIES, a 501c-3 organization To donate by Check (US Dollar Only), make your check payable to: ELIJAH LIST MINISTRIES
528 ELLSWORTH ST SW
ALBANY, OR 97321 USA
Or Call:
(541) 967-3665 |
Thank you so much!
Steve and Derene Shultz
Founders of Elijah List Ministries
P.S. Any amount you give, and I mean ANY AMOUNT...accrues to your Heavenly Account. Some can only give a "widow's mite" but God sees everything and you will be blessed greatly, even if you sow just a little!
| • | Give and it will be given TO YOU, PRESSED DOWN |
| • | Give to the poor, lending to the Lord |
| • | Generous man will be blessed |
| • | You won't have room enough to receive it. |
More and more people have been saying that God is pouring out mightily in worship these days! Dean Mitchum is the worship director at CI international, Bishop Bill Hamon's church in Florida, and he always has great teachings about worship.
