THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE BLESSING OF THE LORD !

THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE BLESSING OF THE LORD ! Anyway you look at it--- from the Garden of Eden on, THE BLESSING and the tithe are connected. Adam learned it the hard way. Able learned it from Adam. Noah knew it, and so did Abraham. So, when Melchizedek ministered THE BLESSING to him (Abraham), he did what his great-grandfather many times over should have done in the Garden. I know that you do not hear about this in what is called Church; before he took any of the spoils of his victory over Chedorlaomer, he brought a tenth of it to God. He wasn't crying about it, either. He wasn't thinking about how much he needed that extra 10%. He was thinking, I'm richer than I've ever been ! The whole earth, some way or another, is mine ! And Abraham took his tithe to the priest who was anointed to receive it, he was receiving revelation of the tremendous wealth that belong to him because of his covenant with God. Notice, Abraham didn't get that revelation in Sunday school. He didn't get it while he was out herding his flocks. He received it tithing ! If you don't learn anything more about it, you need to know this. If you're not tithing, you're living under the curse because it's when you bring your tithe to God that you connect, by faith, with the anointings provided by THE BLESSING. When you tithe (if you do it scripturally), you go to Jesus, your Melchizedek, (priest of the most High God), and He comes to you. You take to Him what is His, and He brings to you what is yours. Many preachers, think that the tithe belongs to them ! Tithing Time Is Communion time. I am so confident in the power of it, that if the only thing standing between me and absolute starvation was my tithe, I would smile and give it to God. I'd give it with confidence and joy because the covenant interaction of tithing is what opens the door for me to receive everything I could ever need to take care of myself and my family. I said, the 10th of tithing belongs to God, not your preacher ! THE FIRE AND THE BLOOD ! Right after Abraham received his expanded revelation of THE BLESSING, the king of Sodom approached him with what he thought was a "real deal." "Give back my people who were captured," he said. "But you may keep for yourself all the goods you have received." Chedorlaomer's invasion has hit that King hard. He'd lost everything----all the wealth of his city, the people, the livestock--- and he was trying to come up with a way to regain his throne and power over the people. He probably figured if he could get the people back, he could work them, tax them or whatever else he had to do to get wealth again. But Abraham didn't want any part of that kind of thing. He didn't need to have any part in it ! Standing there with the sound of THE BLESSING pounding in his ears and the realization that he, through his covenant with the Most High God, has become heir of the world, Abraham made one of the boldest confessions of faith in the Bible. He answered the Sodomite King: I have lifted up mine hand [my covenant tithe] onto THE LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich (versus 22--23). One translation says, "Never let it be said that any man made Abraham rich, but God !" Abraham was BLESSED, and he knew it. He wasn't about to let anyone or anything robbed him of that BLESSING. He wasn't about to mess around with some low integrity, two bit schem that might bring dishonor To God's Name. That kind of attitude thrills me, and what's more important, it thrills God. He gets excited when His people talk and act that way. He got so stirred up listening to Abraham declare his confidence in THE BLESSING that in the very next chapter, He spoke to Abraham in a vision about his heart's greatest desire. He assured His covenant man that he and Sarah would have a child of their own, and heir to whom they could pass on THE BLESSING.