A week or so ago, God had instructed Allen to use our “God money” to pay some bills. I realized I had almost a superstitious fear about obeying and had to remind myself that obedience to His voice was most important to God and that He doesn’t move through fear.

Afterward I had some orders come in, but I didn’t transfer the normal portion to the God account. I think I was then struggling with a fear of lack – after all He let us use it once…

Last night God dealt with me on that as well and I asked Him how much I should transfer over and He said $40. I was in bed at the time and said if it was really Him to remind me the next day and I would comply.

Today He did remind me. I could feel my flesh complaining as I transferred 20% of my balance out of the account into the God account, but I was determined to trust and obey (neither my husband nor I have been employed in 2+ years, $40 is a lot to us right now).

Literally a minute later, I got a desperate email from a D4Y customer needing a scarf immediately. She placed the order right then. The scarf she bought was the $40 scarf.

God is not subtle… and I love Him for that.

As a note, I did transfer the tithe on that immediately into the God account and within an hour had another order for more than 3.5x the first order… so yes, obedience is a very good thing!

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Introduction

God has spoken some fairly incredible promises over our finances. On the heels of those promises have been opportunities for obedience and tests of faith. The test I am sharing about here was one of the most difficult tests…

First Fruits vs Tithe

Honestly, I never really understood the difference between first fruits and tithes. I had always thought they were the same thing. In January 2006, my pastor taught on first fruits though and really made the difference clear.

In short (for those who may not already know), it’s easiest to think of first fruits as in harvest. So, if you planted a crop of tomatoes and lets say that you have 10 tomatoes that get ripe first – that is your first fruit. So you offer all 10 to God – holding nothing back – in expectation that He will provide abundantly. The next group that gets ripe might also be 10 – this time though, you would give a tithe (1).

So how does that translate into modern life? Well, when you get a raise – the difference between your normal check and the new check with the raise would be an example of a first fruits offering.

I’ve heard of people who give their first paycheck each year as a first fruits offering. In our case, we had never given a first fruits offering, so we took it to God and asked Him what we were to give.

Our First First-Fruit Offering

As I asked the Lord what our first first-fruit offering should be I sensed God was asking us to do something significant (at least for us!). I was thinking it was to be my bonus check from work – a large amount of money for us. I kept my thought to myself and asked my husband what he was sensing – expecting confirmation if I was correct.

Over the next week or so, I continued to ask my husband what the Lord was saying to him on this topic. But he hadn’t gotten an answer yet.

In the meantime, we had found out we had a sizable tax return coming… about three times the size of the bonus! We had been praying about where the tithe from that was going to go. We had not had to wait long for our answer on that – a precious young lady from our church (Maria) was planning a short-term mission trip to Honduras. She needed money to buy a ticket We both immediately sensed she was to have the money and we told her so.

In her excitement she began sharing about God’s call on her life. She was called to be a full-time missionary, but had a student loan that was holding her back. As we left that evening – I grabbed Allen’s hand and prayed a quick prayer – “Lord, I would love to help Maria with that student loan – if you can make a way for us to do that it would be awesome! I just pray that debt would be removed in Jesus’ name!”

A couple days later, Allen called me at work and said he’d finally heard from God on the first fruits. God had told him that I thought it was my bonus check, but it wasn’t (already I was floored!) – God had told Allen that we were to give the whole tax refund to Maria to pay off her student loan and give her about half what she needed for her Honduras airfare.

Confirmations

I did a big gulp – you see, I’d done the math and the tax refund was enough to take care of all the things we’d needed to do – we could have done without the bonus money, but to do without the tax refund was truly an act of faith!

Even as we prayed for wisdom and confirmation – more confirmation came – God supernaturally brought up a picture of her on my computer screen. I work in information technology – I am aware of what is possible and what God did was not possible!  And more confirmations came after that.

As I reasoned out in my head giving her the money – I knew cutting the check would leave us with about $17 and change in our account until payday. I thought to myself “I guess we’ll just live on credit cards until then.”

When we gave Maria the money she was overwhelmed – you see God had told her that her family in Christ would step in and would help with things like this… it had seemed impossible that anyone would, but with God NOTHING is impossible!

The Next Step – Freeze the Credit Cards

Still on the high of stepping out in faith – God followed it up with instructions to completely stop using credit cards. We literally put them in a block of ice in the freezer!

This was a big step because we were cash poor – but we were trusting God to show up.

That spring we’d taken the Crown Financial Ministries class. We’d always known that we were walking by faith being in our home (see Tithing and holding out on God) – the house was always held open in our hand ready for God to move us, but each month – He provided… we’d just never know exactly how much! During the class we discovered that we were running between $500-$1000 short each month! How incredible that each moth God provided the difference! (Note: let me just say I am not advocating going into heavy debt and then looking to God to fix it – however, in this case we found ourselves there, repented, were obedient with that which we had and God showed up!)

A Test of Faith

The First Fruit offering had taken a chunk out of our cash. As the end of May approached, we realized we did not have enough to pay June’s mortgage. We waited fully expecting God to show up just as He always did – especially after our big leap of faith!

Only the money didn’t come by June 1. It wasn’t there by the time the late fees were applied on June 16th. And by the end of June when we still hadn’t paid it and weren’t ready to pay July’s either… well, let’s just say my faith was being stretched!

Allen and I pressed in in prayer daily. We asked God for correction if we had acted wrongly. We sought Him with all our hearts. The only correction we recieved was a word from a prophetic friend who said “God says stop worrying! You’re dealing with doubt and unbelief.”

We knew it sounded crazy, but we felt like God had put us in this specific position as a test… we didn’t know what kind of test or why, but we felt it was His hand and we were simply to trust.

Right at that time, God came through with a smaller financial miracle – but it again confirmed that this test was from God.

Feeling Stupid

By the end of July, I was feeling really stupid. I knew in the natural what we were doing made no sense, but we both kept sensing that God was saying don’t try to fix it – just wait on me. All the words God would send our way lined up with this. Yet I felt stupid!

One day God sent a word of correction to me – He said, “Who are you to feel stupid about where I have put you?” Wow! It totally opened my eyes and freed me up to simply rest where He had me.

Fire Getting Hot!

The beginning of August arrived with letters of impending foreclosure. We still sensed that we were to wait on Him as crazy as that might seem to some. We were convinced either He would come through with the finances or a foreclosure officer needed to know about Jesus!

A friend who I had shared our situation with emailed me with some rather harsh words about what we were doing. Challenging that there was no way that God would do this. It devastated me! Through the heavy flow of tears I heard the Lord ask me who I was going to believe… Him or someone else?

I asked Him about my credit rating… and He told me where He was taking us it didn’t matter – that I just needed to have faith.

God is Faithful

In mid-August, two days before official foreclosure proceedings against us began we received an unexpected check that paid our full past due amount and all the way up through October! Praise God! He had shown up just like He said He would… and our level of faith had increased in the process… that’s for sure!

Conclusion

Sometimes we are called to take big steps of faith. No matter how big – God’s faithfulness is bigger.

In my mind – this story is only part of the testimony – there will be more coming as God continues in His faithfulness to bring forth the promises as He has given them

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Introduction

Even though God had already showed Himself true to me on tithing (see A Newbie Tither), during a backslidden period I had stopped giving to God. When I came back to the church, God quickly pricked my heart (and my husband’s) that I (we) needed to start giving to Him again. We started small again and quickly built up our giving until we were tithing (literally 10%) of our net income (after taxes).

In Over Our Heads

About a year later, we bought a new house. It was a God-miracle that we were able to get the house – it was clearly from His hand. The problem was though we’d been in the house less than a month when I realized there was no way we could afford the house. I headed to the park up the street one evening to talk to God about this matter.

The Tithe Principle – It’s About Trusting God

I began to plead my case to Him, quoting Malachi 3:10-11 back to Him and everything. I began to say to Him, “Ok God, I’m going to test You in this – just like You said to because I tithe…”but the moment I began to say tithe He convicted me and said, “You are holding out on me.”

Immediately I knew what He meant. See we had been able to “afford” to tithe on our net income – to tithe on our gross income (pre-tax) would mean a couple hundred more a month! I began to argue with Him and say, “What a minute, I’m here telling you that we can’t afford this house and You are telling me that You want us to give MORE money?”

He replied, “If you can’t trust me with a couple hundred extra a month we have bigger problems than this.”

After spending a few more moments making sure He was serious, I asked Him if I was seriously supposed to go back and tell my husband this (he was not in a Good place with the Lord during this time). He said I should. So in faith I returned home to talk with my husband.

I marched in and told him that God had said we were to start tithing gross not net. He replied, “That’s fine. We’re going to lose the house anyway – it will just make it happen faster.” I started to argue with Him, but the Lord stopped me and pointed out that despite the attitude, he had said yes.

Tithing – Gross vs. Net

Let me pause for a moment and say that I don’t believe God has a rule about tithing gross versus net. It is simply a heart issue. If you seek God’s face and He says $5 a week – give $5 a week. He desires our obedience, not our sacrifice. But if God says tithe gross – I would strongly suggest you begin tithing gross!

So we began did begin tithing on our gross income and a miraculous thing happened… God showed up.

Seeing the Lord hold true to His word

First my husband’s job made him part-time. Yet each month, miraculously we had all the money we needed to cover our expenses. About four months later, my husband’s company went out of business and he was without a job for a few months and each month we had what we needed – sometimes things were paid at the end of the month instead of the beginning, but things were always paid.

Ironically, during this time God was allowing these things to happen to my husband because he was not walking with the Lord. God was using this to get his attention. He also was making it impossible financially for him to be able to leave our marriage! Who would have thought that a woman’s husband losing their job would be a blessing? Yet with God in charge, it was!

He finally got a “temporary” job and we were getting on top of things.

Allowing the body of Christ to minister to us

During that time, two friends of mine from work who were fellow believers approached me and told me they sensed that God had told them to take up an offering for me. Both these individuals were in jobs that I knew made less money than I did and I was moved by the fact that they wanted to, but I was not the type of person to received charity – I was the one who typically gave charity!

I thanked them profusely and told them it was not necessary. I will never forget the look on my sister in Christ’s face as she looked at me and said, “What if I told you we were going to do it anyway because Jesus told us we were supposed to.”

I reflected for a moment, silently repented of my pride and responded, “Then I would assume God was trying to teach me something here and I would graciously say thank you and release you to do whatever the Lord tells you.”

Several weeks later they arrived at my desk with huge grins on their faces. They gave me $375 they had collected. I was blessed, but I thought, “God, why this money? Why now?” I didn’t have to wait long to find out!

The Miracle of Obedience

Two days later, my husband called me to tell me he was having car problems. Periodically when he’d hit them the car wouldn’t stop. He’d pump them and then it would finally stop. Clearly, that’s a pretty big problem! He took the car into the shop. The total… $355+ tax.

It was the same amount that we’d been blessed with. What was so amazing is that had they not taken the collection – we simply would not have had the money to fix it. Since it still was sort of working, my hubby probably would have driven it at least a little. Who knows what plans the enemy had for him!

But God is an AWESOME God! And so a month before we even knew we had a need, He was prompting their hearts to meet a need we didn’t even know we had.

So God – through the body of Christ – provided for us and protected my husband. Malachi 3:10-11 in action!

Conclusion

God can be trusted at His word. He may take us places that make us uncomfortable, but it’s always for our own good. Had I never been in a position of need, I would never had had an opportunity for God to meet my need.

So be ready – be listening – and most of all be obedient!

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Introduction

So many singles spend time thinking about who they should date and spend time dating a variety of people to find one that they like… I have to tell you, I did the same thing and below is one such story. In retrospect, I think I could have saved myself a lot of heartache by simply asking God to lead me from the beginning.

Tired of Being Alone

In my late twenties, I was tired of being alone. I wanted a boyfriend. I hadn’t been able to find someone who I liked who also liked me and who shared my beliefs. I had been a believer for about a year and a half and there was so much I didn’t know about walking with the Lord.

I actually remember the very moment I turned from God’s plan for me. I was standing outside work and was looking at a man I knew from there. He was very confident and had charisma. He was a strong man – something I always looked for because I am a strong woman and knew I needed someone who would not be run over by me!

The problem with this particular man was that he had a drug problem and he frankly, he was not walking with the Lord. That said, he was somewhat interested in me and I was definitely interested in him.

So as I stood there outside my work, I dismissed all the warnings the Holy Spirit was sending off inside me and decided I would choose my future. His voice became softer and softer over the next few months until I really didn’t hear Him anymore – I’d tuned Him out.

Losing My Religion

What I find interesting is that the world seems to know more about how Christians should live than Christians do. As this man watched my behavior – he even flat out told me I was “losing my religion” – and frankly, he wasn’t wrong.

I had started doing all the things I had previously been very self-righteous about; I started gambling, began doing drugs with him (and paying for them), and not only was sleeping with him, but I had him move in with me.

Although he had said early on he would visit church with me some time, he never did. Not only that, my church attendance tapered off because of the changes in my interests and activities. And because of the size of the church, if any noticed I was missing – they never called. I got one card in the mail, but given my outright rebellion it was too easy to set aside – it had been condemning and had hurt my feelings.

Losing Myself

I, the clay, had moved myself off the Potter’s wheel and was allowing myself to be molded by one who’s heart towards me was not God’s.

Days rolled into months as we stayed high – numb to everything trying to suppress a growing ache.

He would not marry me. He didn’t believe in marriage. I compromised myself again telling myself he was worth it. I nearly lost my home – almost went into foreclosure because of the amount of drugs and money lost on gambling and I was sued for other monies owed that had been spent supporting this drug habit.

As he continued to either not work or work part-time, he decided I could make more money at another job and so at his direction I quit the job I enjoyed that had been an answer to prayer and left for a corporate position that made more money, but left me working much longer hours and much more stressed.

The things I loved, the things I believed in were one-by-one sacrificed on the altar before this man that I had unintentionally made my god.

If this is not the man…

The thing was, I felt as though I genuinely loved him. And although I’m sure I did, in retrospect, I was also probably dealing with a good portion of ungodly soul ties. In my heart I treated this relationship as though he were my husband and I gave of myself and my resources as though that were the case.

One day a Christian friend I hadn’t spoken with in a while called me to tell me she was engaged. She was in her mid-thirties and was still a virgin. She’d met a wonderful Christian man and he’d popped the question!

When we hung up the phone, I simply began crying as the realization became so clear that I was never going to have the life I wanted with this man… at least not this way. All the seemingly small (and some not so small) concessions that I thought I’d been ok with now overwhelmed me.

I prayed for the first time in a while. I said, “Lord, if this is not the man You have for me, I just pray You’d take him from me because I want the one You choose, but I don’t have the strength to leave. I cannot imagine my life without this man, but I trust that You will bring me through this. I want Your will to be done.”

The Break-Up

Less than two months later, he broke up with me. I discovered later he didn’t intend for it to be over – little did he know he was simply doing God’s bidding.  Had I known he didn’t intend for it to be over I never would have moved on.  God is so merciful.

When he left I was heartbroken and cried for three weeks straight. Some days literally having to leave work because I couldn’t contain myself. During that time I began going back to church. I was still involved in a lot of sin, but I was at least beginning to move the right direction because I had put myself back on God’s path.

God’s Perfect Will

I believe that God has a perfect will for each of us. I picture it something like a navigation system where the start point is where we are and shortest route in-between the end-point or way-point is God’s perfect will. So often though we take a wrong turn or intentionally go a different way, but constantly God is giving updated directions for the shortest route – the optimum path.

I took a nearly two-year detour from God’s perfect will for me, but, in His mercy, the moment I turned He put me back on the path to His destination for me.

Conclusion

And the beauty of God is that He uses all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Through all this God knocked some pride and self-righteousness out of me. He’s taught me to extend more grace to others because one never knows or fully understands why or how someone ends up in a particular predicament.

Some lessons learned:

• Choose God’s path – even if you don’t understand why He’s taking you a particular direction (like keeping you single when you don’t want to be) – He has a plan and you can trust Him to have your best interests at heart
• Listening to God can save you a LOT of heartache
• God sees everything – the beginning and the end – He knows who is the right person for you. Trust Him in that.

I think one of my biggest regrets is that I totally lost my witness and this man (to my knowledge) is still not walking with the Lord.  God has a plan and a call for his life and I no more want to see him miss his than I want to miss my own!

To this day I pray for him every time he comes to mind… for God’s will to be done in his life and for him not to miss all that God has for him.  God loves him so.  And just like me, God has good plans for him – plans for hope and a future, plans to prosper him and not to harm him (Jeremiah 29:11).  Those are the same plans He has for you too…

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