Tithing Part Two

Immature adults, in other words, children, are the ones that need laws. When my children were young they had many laws to obey - brush your teeth before bedtime, look both ways when you cross the street, hug mommy and daddy every day, etc. And all these laws were good but as adults they are no longer under the law of mommy and daddy, now they've matured and don't need to be ordered around and told what to do. New Testament saints have only one commandment to follow and obey - love. Love the Lord thy God and love thy neighbor as thyself. Every other instruction in the New Testament stems from these two commandments. God simply demands that we love him and show it by loving one another. We must even love our enemies!
We, as New Testament believers - those born of God after the Spirit, not after the flesh, do not give ten percent of our income, we give our very lives to Him. We give far more than mere money (because money is the demi-god of Babylon, it is considered by those in the world to be the greatest sacrifice, the highest form of love) but we follow and obey God with our hearts, then our souls, then our bodies. We give our time and yes, we give our money but only when he tells us to. We should not ask the Lord "how much of my money should I give?" but rather "How much of your money may I keep?" We should always give as the Holy Spirit leads us to. Whether it's the shirt off our back, our car, or the money in our wallet. Pay no attention to soulish appeals by men to coerce you into giving, through fear or guilt or the promised of worldly wealth - obey God instead. If God says give, then give, however much he says. If he doesn't say to give, then don't do it, no matte how guilty they try to make you feel. Some shame you into giving - making a big show of it - (though Jesus taught us not to give publicly), so if you don't give - everyone sees it, while at the same time anyone can see who is giving, so they can receive the praise of the pastor and elders and fellow congregants. No! Obey the Holy Spirit no matter what. Herein lies the problem - denominations avoid the holy Spirit at all costs - they do not want people filled with the Spirit, walking in the Spirit (Rom:8:14 & 4), following Christ himself. They make all kinds of excuses for not allowing the Holy Spirit in (he's too messy, the service must be done decently and in order, he was only for the first saints, etc, but the truth is they do not want to give up authority and control to God. They want to remain in power, ruling the people. But such benevolent rulers they are! Wanting only the people's good! So does Satan. Mark my words, when he takes over the world in physical form (he already rules the world in spirit), when he makes a one world government, he will appear as the world's savior, wanting only to bless people. Ungodly leadership almost always present themselves as godly.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" but most churches put people into bondage, into a maze of do's and don'ts where they decide what is acceptable and what isn't - at the price of the very presence of God in their midst. Even "Pentecostal" churches - which pride themselves on the fact they welcome the Holy Spirit, only welcome him as long as he submits to them. He may show up when they say so - as long as they want, and he may do what they allow him to. How many services have i been in where the holy spirit shows up during worship, only to have the worship leader start another song, or the pastor start doing announcements or his sermon. As a people, very few congregations know how to "Wait upon the Lord" (Ps:27:14, 130:5, Is:8:17, 40:31,42:4, Lam:3:25, 3:26, Mi:7:7, Lu:12:36, 1 Th:1:10).