ICS Daily Devotions
The Channel Of God’s Blessing

Hebrews 7:8-9 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak.

Jesus is alive and He is the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. He is still the High Priest today. He has appointed mortal men to receive His tithes on earth. Just like the Levi in the Old Testament receives tithes, the church pastor receives tithes on God’s behalf and the servants of God pay tithes, too. The tithes are paid unto the Lord and the scripture says that Jesus receives it in heaven. The difference is it is no longer a temple or a tabernacle but a church made of living stones and Jesus as the corner stone.

Just like the people of the Old Testament who depended on the faithfulness and the provision of God, the church of today is dependent on the provision and the blessings of God. In fact, the church of today has a much heavier responsibility than the priest in the Old Testament because we have been commissioned to preach the gospel to the ends of the world.

If Jesus has commissioned the church to preach the gospel then He will fund it by using as a channel of His blessing to provide the money. He will bring in the money to fund the church operations, the outreach and mission programs! There is a greater need especially in this time when the world’s population has grown beyond 6 billion and He has entrusted the work of the ministry to us. What is stopping the money from coming in is not the source, that is God, but the receiving end, that is us. The problem is always the receiving end and not the sender.

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.

Sometimes, it is either our subconsciousness or the fact that we have never been taught to make God the source of our provision by tithing and giving free willed offering. Therefore, God has often become something like the an emergency button to be broken in case of emergency. We make a desperate plea and call for help through prayer in a dire situation but we have never really trusted Him to provide for us incrementally. It does not work that way because acting on His word and everything else is based on His condition, principles and truth. God does not act apart from His word. It is always on His terms and not our terms.

We can give and trust God to be blessed. One day, Jesus was sitting at the offering box, as we can read in the gospel, observing people as they gave. There came a widow who put in two mites while the rich were giving out of their abundance. Jesus gave credit to the woman who gave more than the others. Be a cheerful giver and trust God for the provision!

Sermon Series: Blessed by God