When I look at Churches today, I am deeply saddened by what giving has been exchanged for. Giving, in modern-day Churches, means one thing: giving to the Church. Almost every teaching that we hear on the subject usually ends by pointing to the Church as the place to give. Giving is one of the most powerful attributes a Christian has in his or her possession. It’s like a golden key that the Father put in our hearts. It can unlock the coldest and hardest hearts. It can change relationships at the drop of a hat. It has the power to heal, encourage, lift up, break bondages, mend broken hearts, heal the sick, usher in forgiveness, and put an end to war, hunger, homelessness and poverty. It’s the biggest and most powerful expression of love that this world has ever known.

The problem is that the world is unaffected by the giving of Christians because Christians don’t give to the world. Generally, they stiff the world and give to the Church. They are deceived into believing that giving to the Church is the same as giving to the world. This beautiful and powerful key from heaven has been swallowed whole, and now sits in the belly of the institution, forever hidden from a world that needs it so desperately. It’s being held for ransom, and the institution demands payment on a weekly basis. Like spiritual dairy farms, good-hearted Christians are hooked up to the money- hungry system of organized religion and milked for everything they’re worth, week after week. By the time they hit the parking lot, they’re drained of every last dime. The world is hurting and hungry and Christians are ineffectual because all they had to give has been taken by things like endless building funds, missions, staff salaries and the constantly-growing overhead that it costs to operate a Church.

I am convinced that TRUE giving was strangled the moment the theology of “Seed Faith Giving” was introduced. From that dreadful and dark day until present, Christians ceased to view giving through the same selfless perspective for which it was originally created. This beautiful quality that captures the very essence of God’s heart was drained of its splendor and beauty and perverted to a point where it’s unrecognizable. The mirror-image of God Himself that was reflected with unmistakable clarity through unadulterated giving has been dulled or erased completely.

The very heart of God that said, “Freely you have received, now freely give,” has been turned inside-out by today’s teachings. Churches all over America now tell their people that IF they give freely, THEN they will receive. This catastrophic perversion of truth literally aborts the heartbeat of giving. Sadly, we have heard it so often that we aren’t affected by its stench when we hear it preached. Most people even amen their way through the entire teaching. Only a loveless generation would accept such cold and empty ideas without detecting that something was wrong. You simply cannot love, and also agree with the modern-day Christian perspective of giving.

Could you imagine me making breakfast for my five children and before they begin to eat, I tell them that I am giving them this food as a “seed faith offering” because there is something I want God to give me. How terrible! What if I bought my wife a diamond necklace and as she was trying it on with tears of joy in her eyes, I informed her that I was ‘giving her the necklace in faith?’ How do you suppose that would make her feel? I know my wife. She would be crushed. She would say, “You mean you didn’t just give this to me because you love me?” Faith is wonderful. Giving is wonderful. When you unite the two together, you basically cancel them out. “Giving in faith” is an oxymoron. Faith in what??? True giving requires no faith at all. True giving only requires love. To link faith to giving is to admit that your motive behind the gift is selfish, and when that’s true, giving is cancelled out.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking teaching I hear in Churches today is the teaching on “tithing.” I shouldn’t have to present one scripture to anyone as an argument against tithing in New Testament times. IF YOU LOVE, the very concept of this teaching will appear so shallow and repulsive that you’ll become sick to your stomach at the mere mention of it. The problem is that most people don’t love and the disgusting odor that fills the room when this concept is taught is casually overlooked. In fact, some folks actually like the smell of it. They like it because it’s heartless. Their standing with God is no longer based on a level of personal intimacy and relationship, but on a mathematically-calculated set of numbers. The tithe teaching comes with a “No closeness required” label on it.

If I told you that I gave ten percent of my paycheck to my wife and I kept 90% for myself, you would be shocked. If I even told you that we had separate bank accounts, you would most likely wonder what kind of marriage we had. My wife and I share the same bank account and 100% of everything in that account belongs to both of us because WE ARE ONE! The obvious problem with “tithing” is that it is a blatantly separatist mentality. The New Testament is about love and love causes people to become ONE. It fuses hearts together and people no longer keep track of what belongs to them.

I am amazed at how many preachers unashamedly present God as being as heartless as a Mafia godfather. The Malachi 3:10 verse is machine-gunned towards the audience week after week in an effort to make the people terrified of NOT giving. They are told that the “godfather” will protect their home, family and business if they faithfully pay him 10% of their income. If they don’t cough up the cash, however, He will lift His hand of protection from them and the hounds of hell will be given full right to plunder not only their finances but their health and the health of their family members. Preachers tell people that the “tithe is a debt that they owe to God” and until it’s paid in full, God literally “CAN’T” bless them. They say that “God’s hands are tied” and all He can do is sit there and watch your life fall apart if you don’t pay up.

For a preacher to stand in front of his audience and say such horrible and heartless things, he must first have NO LOVE for anyone in the congregation. There is no way that anyone who loves people could say such callous and coldhearted things. We shouldn’t need a verse to prove that some things are wrong! If we love, we’ll smell its wrongness the moment it hits the air. All New Testament principles are rooted in LOVE. If you don’t love, you won’t understand the New Testament principles in regards to anything. This is precisely why the majority of the Church is so enamored with the Old Testament. Jesus predicted that it would be this way when He said, “No one after having the old wine, wants the new, for he says the old is better.”

Imagine you’re standing outside of a huge, beautiful mansion. Way up high on the fifth floor, there is a window. Behind the window is a room that is full of all the blessings in the universe. Now imagine that you have 100 pebbles in your pocket and you have to hit the window with 10 of those pebbles. When you do, the owner of the mansion opens up the window and pours out blessings upon you. This is a picture of our modern-day teachings on tithing and it’s a perfect representation of what Malachi 3:10 seems to say.

The difference in the New Testament time is NOW YOU LIVE IN THE HOUSE! Not only do you live in the house, but your room is the blessing room and God has put you in charge of the window. Can you imagine how ridiculous we Christians must appear as we stand on the inside of the window hitting it with our 10 little pebbles each week, trying to get it open?

So the big question is this. If your room is the blessing room and you’re in charge of the window, how do YOU lay hold of the blessing? How do you get it for yourself? We have been taught that if we give, we can wait and eventually, a big blessing will come back to us in the mail, but remember, that’s Old Testament thinking. So how do you get the blessing in the New Testament way of thinking? The answer is plain and simple for those who LOVE. It’s almost impossible to comprehend, however, if you don’t. The way you get the blessing in the New Testament time is by giving.

If you love, GIVING IS THE BLESSING!!!

You don’t give, and then wait for a blessing to come back to you. The very act of giving itself IS the blessing. You don’t need anything else. In the Old Testament, God taught the people that if they gave, a blessing would be returned to them because God was preparing them for a time when giving would be the blessing. Sadly, this does not come alive until love is present and unfortunately, for the most part, it’s not, so week after week, we still teach that we give to others because if we do, God will send us a blessing. How sad.

I don’t buy my wife a dress and then walk around the corner and wait for my blessing to come to me. When I buy her a dress, I am blessed. My heart leaps out of my chest when I see her face as she unwraps the pretty box. Joy floods my soul when I see her excitedly run to try it on. All I can think about from that moment on is what else I can give to her. The thrill is in the presentation alone. This is the heart of giving in the New Testament! It would crush her spirit if she thought I had an ulterior motive behind giving her that dress. In the same way, I believe that modern-day Christianity cancels out the real heart-power of giving because it is used as a means to an end.

As with everything in New Testament times; unless we love, we will not enter into the beauty and wonder that was freely provided for us on the Cross. I feel that today’s teachings on giving are a perfect example of the state of the Church. The average Christian has so many jumbled ideas about what it means to be a giver that it’s sickening. There is nowhere else to go if a person doesn’t love, but to the Old Testament. This is why we are in the state we are today. Everything must be monitored, watched, lead and held accountable. These are necessary because love is absent. I believe that until people begin to walk in love, GIVING will never be resurrected.