WHY DO WE GIVE BUT NOT RECEIVE?

God's principle is to receive after giving (sowing and reaping). There are times when we sow but do not reap, when we give but do not receive. In such a case the problem is not God, for "God is not a man, that he should lie" Numbers 23:19. Rather it is we the sowers and givers who fail the conditions of sowing and giving. God says in James 4:3, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly." So it must be certain that "we give but do not receive, because we give wrongly"!!

The following are some of the things that keep us from receiving even though we give.

Why do we give but not receive? – CHECK LIST –

1. Robbing God of the tithe. (Mal 3:7-12) • Giving an offering while you are robbing God of the tithe profits nothing, because the windows of heaven are shut. The offering will not bear fruit. Your offering will bring a good harvest only if your windows of heaven have been opened by the tithe you give. Do not rob God. Give the tithe faithfully. You will begin to see that you receive a harvest (blessing) in good measure, pressed down and running over.
2. Giving an offering without faith (Heb 11:1,6; Heb 10:38) "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for" — many give offerings but have no assurance that the offering will bear thirty, sixty or a hundredfold (Matt 13:3,8)

• Because many give without assurance (faith), their offerings are not pleasing before God. So they do not bear fruit. For that reason they come to believe that giving an offering is merely contributing money, with no expectation of a return. As though it were lost. These are mistaken ideas that Satan has led many to believe.

• But the WORD of God gives us assurance (faith), since "faith comes by hearing … the word of Christ" (Rom 10:17). If someone believes the word of God, that God cannot lie, his heart will receive assurance (faith). Within him an expectation of receiving will be built, every time he gives. He will know that giving an offering is not losing, but sowing for a harvest (blessing) that is greater still.

• From now on, receive the assurance that if you give in the faith of receiving, you will receive. If you give without the faith of receiving, you will not receive; you will merely have contributed. So the seed cannot bear fruit, for "…whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Rom 14:23)

• No farmer can give a little while believing the harvest will be great. One who gives little has no faith to receive. He believes it "is lost", and that is why he thinks it better to lose only a little.

• But one who has faith to receive gives abundantly, because he knows his offering is not lost but sown, and that it will bear much fruit.

1. Giving less than what you first resolved, or less than what God led you to give. (Acts 5:1-11; Prov 21:27) • If you settle in your heart on leaving home to give God a certain amount as an offering, God has already received that offering once you resolved it. At the time of giving, do not reduce it. Otherwise you will be robbing God.

• Many people go wrong by arriving at the service having already reduced God's offering. Out of that same offering they buy a newspaper, a sweet, or pay a fare. That offering is no longer holy, because you have cut it down.

• Plan your offering in prayer, decide the amount you will give to God, and be faithful not to reduce it, whatever happens. Some of the misfortunes that come upon us are the result of robbing God, as with Ananias and Sapphira.

1. Giving a blemished offering Mal 1:13-14, Leviticus 22:20-25. A blemished offering is one that even you have no use for. It is what we give in order to lighten our load. God does not accept "reject" offerings. Never give leftovers (from the shop, the field, the house, and so on) as an offering — it is no honour! It is a curse before God. God accepts the fat offering, the good offering, the best offering. "Honour God with your offerings" Prov 3:9

• If what you gave was all that was left, God will receive it well and in his eyes it will be "fat", even if it is small, worn or blemished, because it was all you had left.

1. Giving an unjust or unlawful offering (Malachi 3:12-13) • An unlawful offering is one obtained through injustice — for example: illegal trade, oppression, bribery, theft, killing, fraud, rebellion and so on. You who do such things are an abomination before God. An offering of this kind will not be blessed. It is unlawful. Isa 1:11-17; Amos 5:22-27.
2. Giving an offering without the love of Christ within you. (1 Cor 13:1-4) • If your heart hates someone — a neighbour, a relative, or people of another denomination or another tribe — you are not fit to give an offering. The Bible says "No profit".

• If you have fallen out with someone, you ought to put the relationship right first, before giving your offering. (Matt 5:23-25)

• Giving is a complete act of worship. You should give your offering without guile, without resentment, without hatred, without anger or quarrel or grievance against anyone. Let your heart be clean. If you have something against someone, "Confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed." (Jas 5:16) • True love is bound up with peace of spirit (Eph 4:1-3) (Heb 12:14). God wants us to pursue peace earnestly — love and unity — so that we may have his blessings in our lives. True love brings unity, and there God has commanded his blessing. (Ps 133:1-3)

1. Giving an offering in order to be praised (Matt 6:2-4; Prov 21:27) • The meaning of this scripture is not that your offering should go unseen, but concerns the intention of the heart. It does not mean that if your neighbour (your hand) sees your offering it is void. But if you displayed it or mentioned it in order to be praised, then it has become void. It will bring no blessing at all.
2. Giving an offering in a place where you were not asked to give (Deut 12:13-14) • Every offering (seed) has its own particular place to be given (sown). Some seeds do not grow well in Europe, in Africa, on hills, in valleys, in sand, on the coast, in water, and so on.

• It is important to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit. If God wanted you to give your offering to orphans and you give it at church, you will have gone wrong. It is important to ask God, to listen to him and to obey him well. There are offerings for the church and offerings for places outside it — for example: for orphans, widows, the poor, meetings, seminars, ministers' travel, ministers' households and so on.

• See Matt 13:1-9. The problem was not with the sower, nor with his seed, but with the "place" the seed fell.

• Not every soil is loose, fertile soil. Fertile soil is the place the Spirit leads you to give — the place where God's work is going well, to God's glory. For example: At church / at meetings, (Acts 4:36) Preachers of the gospel (Phil 4:15-20; Gal 6:6). * To the poor, orphans and widows (Acts 10:1-4, Isa 1:10-17) • Let the Holy Spirit guide you (Rom 8:14; John 16:13)

1. Giving an offering at a time when you were not asked to give. (Eccl 3:1-2, 6) Everything has its time. Even seed is not sown every day. It has its seasons for sowing and for reaping. Learn to give your offering at the time God prompts you to give. If God's prompting comes to move you to give now, and you fail to obey, and then decide to give next week, it is no wonder if you do not receive the harvest of your offering. Late obedience is disobedience. You cannot know — perhaps at that very minute of that very day, your offering was badly needed in the place God was directing you to give. By your disobedience you have hindered his work, and you will not be able to be blessed. (Isa 1:19)
2. Giving an offering in order to be accepted by God. (Acts 10:1-6) • Cornelius thought God would justify him by the abundance of his offerings and his prayers. But God had mercy on him and showed him the right way to be justified — that is, salvation through Jesus Christ.

• Many people use offerings to seek God's righteousness. Such offerings bring no blessing. They are like a bribe. You cannot bribe God with money or with prayers. God's righteousness is received freely, through true repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:17-48) (Eph 2:8-9).

• Give your offering with a clean heart, intending to worship God and to carry the gospel forward. And you will be greatly blessed.

• May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and for ever, Amen. (2 Cor 13:14)

IT IS BETTER NOT TO GIVE AT ALL. Having learned that God has his own standard for being worshipped through the giving of offerings, it is very important that you know these things, so that you may see the profit and the blessing of giving. They will help you to prepare yourself properly every time you wish to worship God by giving an offering.

It is my prayer that this truth will build the habit of checking yourself, point by point, so that you do not go wrong in your giving. This is because God loves OBEDIENCE (to his instructions, to his Word) more than SACRIFICE. That is why it is written: "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they are doing evil." Ecclesiastes 5:1.

IT IS EITHER A BLESSING OR A CURSE. Every time you take an offering in your hand, remember that by that offering you may be blessed or cursed. Your offering has the power to bless you, if you give well by following God's instructions; but that same offering also has the power to curse you, if you give it carelessly without following God's order.

By these same offerings David was blessed, yet by these same offerings Ananias and Sapphira died. Hear what God says. "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers… See, before you are blessing and curse, life and death; choose life, that you may live." Deut 6:17-18. "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ … Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise … They go from strength to strength … Let everything that has breath praise the LORD … Honour the LORD with your wealth, … then your barns will be filled with plenty." (2 Pet 3:18; Ps 84:4-5,7; Prov 3:9-10)