“From the Heart” teaching by Drs. Rodney & Adonica Howard-Browne.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.7And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” 9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.”  Genesis 17:6-10 NKJV

Almighty God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants – He made a forever commitment to them and asked them to make a forever commitment to Him. A covenant is a committed promise. You commit to the terms of the covenant and you also commit to never break the covenant – that is what makes it a covenant. Father God committed to be a God to his people – to protect and provide for them. He asks His people to commit to Him, to worship Him only and to honor Him with their hearts, their mouth, their actions and their offerings.

All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God.  Deuteronomy 28:2 NIV

However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.  Deuteronomy 28:15 NIV

Jesus died to remove your sins and your sicknesses and to destroy the work of the enemy in your life. When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, you also accepted Him as your Lord and Master. There is a blessing for you as you commit to the Lord and keep your covenant promises that you made to Him, but there is a curse that comes on you if you break your promises.

A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is the [reverent] fear due Me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise My name. You say, How and in what way have we despised Your name? 7 By offering polluted food upon My altar. And you ask, How have we polluted it and profaned You? By thinking that the table of the Lord is contemptible and may be despised. 8 When you [priests] offer blind [animals] for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Present such a thing [a blind or lame or sick animal] now to your governor [in payment of your taxes, and see what will happen]. Will he be pleased with you? Or will he receive you graciously? says the Lord of hosts.  Malachi 1:6-8 AMP

If God is your Father, then you should honor Him as a Father. If Jesus is your Lord and Master, then you should reverentially fear Him as your Lord and Master. If you brought a blind, lame, or sick offering to your governor as payment for your taxes, he would not be pleased with you and would probably punish you. Why do God’s people pay their taxes to human governments, but bring God nothing? Why do God’s people pay all that they owe on their taxes, but bring God their dregs and way less than their best?

“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse-the whole nation of you-because you are robbing me. 10 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 you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.  Malachi 3:6-12 NIV

If God is your God – if He is your Father, your Lord and your Master – then show Him your honor and your respect by giving Him your first and your best. Bring your tithes – the tenth of your income – to the storehouse first, before you pay your bills or buy the things you need and want and God will bless what you have left over and give you even more. Don’t be a God-robber, don’t break your covenant promise to serve and obey Him. Don’t think of your tithe as money you are losing out on, but as an investment into the kingdom of God and a maintaining of your covenant promise to honor Him. God never ever breaks His covenant promises to you, but if you break your covenant promises with Him then He cannot protect you from the enemy. God always keeps His covenant – make sure that you make your commitment and keep your commitment to Him and you will always see the blessing and favor of God on your life.