Listening to Peter’s recent talk on tithing inspired me to share some tangible proof of what Jesus said in Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”1
When I joined the Family, I forsook my former life and everything I owned. I gave all my possessions to further the mission. There was quite a sizable amount of money in my bank account, which I had inherited from my grandfather. When I gave it to the Lord’s work, my parents and brothers and sisters were quite upset with me. But when they saw over the years how the Lord provided all my needs and those of my growing family, my parents thought that the Family had given me back way more than I gave them. They don’t understand that it was the Lord who gave it back. The spiritual principles of giving to the Lord are difficult to grasp for people who don’t know His law of giving and receiving in return. It’s not easy to understand with our natural reasoning, as it doesn’t make sense. But it works!
When I started out in my full-time work as a witness on the street, passing out hundreds of tracts every day, six hours a day, snow or shine, leading others to the Lord and into His service, we had no place to call our home, being strangers in many strange cities. But the Lord took care of us. He supplied nice places to stay and to invite people to for weekly meetings, all our food and clothing, and we gave a lot of our income away. (In those days we gave up to 50% or more.)
In the almost 40 years of my service for the Lord, only once have I bought myself some clothes and a pair of shoes, because I was told to do so, to represent the Family (in those days, the COG) as the official president of the legal association in my home country, in court and to the press. I don’t like shopping, and the Lord knows it. So, He provides all my needs through other sources—namely donated goods.
In Malachi 3:10 the Lord challenges us to give Him our tithes, and if we do, He promises that He will give us back so much “that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”2 When we started to include humanitarian aid in our mission work, the Lord gave us so much that we literally didn’t have room enough to hold it. At first we received and distributed boxes of clothes, shoes, wheelchairs, etc., in our van to needy people in Eastern Europe. Then He added a trailer load on top of that. Then people gave us so much that we needed something bigger. So He brought along a new friend, Josef, who bought a truck just to drive with us to deliver the goods to the needy, all the way to the Ukraine, and that in the dead of winter on frozen roads.
To this day, about 15 years later, Josef still uses that same truck to deliver humanitarian aid to many needy folks in Eastern Europe. I meet him every year, and he is drawing closer and closer to the Lord.
Then I moved to Africa. The Lord had provided so much that we needed a big container, 12 meters long, to ship it all across the ocean. He provided free transport and helped us to bring three such containers to three different countries, helping needy refugees who had lost everything in a horrible civil war, or to the pygmies who’d had to settle down because the trees in the rain forest were cut down, which caused them to lose their hunting grounds.
Now we’ve switched projects and are building a school for children who have never had a school and have no money to visit the mud-hut school in their neighboring village. We are using our humanitarian efforts to reach people with the message of God’s love, from ministers and ambassadors in Africa to people from all walks of life in Europe.
And who pays for all this? The Lord always gives back way more than we give Him.
Just a few months ago we received the biggest gift ever for our project, from a man we don’t even know. He saw a rerun of an interview we had with a small TV station about our school project and he was so touched that he wanted to give us this money, as it looked like he wouldn’t survive a sickness. We prayed for him, he got miraculously healed, and we are looking forward to meeting this precious man soon so we can lead him to the Lord.
Tithing has never been a question to me. For me it’s just like putting two and two together. I give and the Lord gives back so much more. This inspired me to always give more than my tithe, also because I can see the need to support those who have less than I do. Before 2010 I used to give 25% to the Lord; now I have decided to give 15% to the Lord and 10% to my children and wife from my first marriage, as I didn’t give them so much before and they really need it.
Since 2010 the Lord has done an amazing miracle, something unexplainable! When our communal home closed, we divvied up what was left and headed out into the unknown. At the time we closed the house we had rented together and started our school project in the bush, literally having no place to call home, once again! But did the Lord leave us? No way! He came through more than ever. Not only did He provide a grant to help us get started with our most challenging project to date, but He even helped us to put funds aside from other unexpected gifts to buy a small apartment, something we’d never even thought of before.
And how did He do it? Out of the blue I got a donation from an unexpected source, which was more than I had ever received from anybody for personal use. And, after the reboot we were able to put funds aside for almost two years while we stayed with relatives and friends and went on road trips, helping us to save all we would normally pay for rent, utilities, food, etc. We also sold some equipment which we didn’t need and added that income to the funds we had put aside.
Eventually we had enough to get just what we needed: a small apartment pretty centrally located, near the metro, with a nice playground nearby, walking distance to the best Christian kindergarten we could find for our little adopted African daughter. We had no furniture, as we’d moved continents once again. And, as usual, the Lord gave us all we needed—a fridge here, a washing machine there—through friends and companies. One company even donated a set of brand-new furniture for our little darling’s bedroom. Nothing is too good for His children!
Besides material blessings and finances, what else did the Lord do? I lived in malaria-infested parts of the world, both in India and Africa, for about 15 years. To this day, the Lord has protected me from catching malaria or any of the other deadly diseases that are rampant in the tropics. And what about the non-monetary gifts which saved us thousands of dollars every year, like sponsored plane tickets, free visas, hotels and meals out, etc.? For the first few years our faithful airline ticket sponsor insisted on flying us business class. One of those tickets costs over $5,000! We finally convinced him that we wanted to save his company’s money and fly economy class.
And what about the volunteer services others give us, like free translations, people who started a new website for us, other TFI members who help us in our mission work, laying down their lives with us? It is impossible to write down all His miracles of supply and protection.
Giving, in my eyes, is not really a sacrifice because He always gives back so much more than we give Him! I know, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s true! The best thing is probably not to even try to understand it. It’s just the way God works! It’s a law of the Spirit. If you give love away, you get more in return. If you give money away, He gives you back way more, just as He promised in His Word: “Pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”3
Looking at my life of service for Him, I can only marvel at His powerful promises and their unfailing fulfillment! I’ve never worked for money, I have served the Lord full-time, and He’s never failed to supply all my needs and more.4 He Himself had no certain dwelling place on earth. He treats us better than that. And what He has begun, I’m sure He will complete it unto the end.5
That’s my faith! That’s my experience!
1 ESV.
2 “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” (NIV).
3 Luke 6:38.
4 Philippians 4:19.
5 Philippians 1:6.
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