Open Heavens Devotionals: 5 October 2016 By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Thieves In The Sanctuary I
Memorise: Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. – Ephesians 4:28
Read: Malachi 3:8-9 (KJV)
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
Bible in One Year: Ezekiel 35:1-37:14, Psalms 74:1-11
MESSAGE:
One sad thing going on among the children of God is that some are stealing from the sanctuary of God and the people concerned are doing it with impunity.
There are many ways a person can steal from the sanctuary of God. The most common way to almost every Bible reading Christian is when you deny God one-tenth of your income, Malachi 3:8 says:
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”
When someone eats all his income without giving back one out of ten of it, the fellow is stealing from the sanctuary, because the tithe belongs to the sanctuary of God.
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” - Malachi 3:10
Another way of stealing from the sanctuary is by refusing to give your first-fruit to the Lord as He requested from His covenant people in Deuteronomy 26:2:
“That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.”
Some people will argue that the ordinance of the first fruit belongs to the Old Testament era. I have always asked them about the numerous promises of God in the Old Testament which they often quote and claim to their advantage. For example, I asked some of them who took me up on whether the promise of being “the head and not the tail” isn’t found in the New Testament. Or “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Which is also in the book of Matthew. The truth of the matter is that the scriptures which are favourable to the flesh are easily quoted and claimed. Those that take the steam out of their so called personal freedom and finances are pushed to the background. The first fruit is the property of the Almighty God in His sanctuary. We must give it to Him through the custodians of the genuine sanctuary of God. I pray for someone using this devotional; the Holy Spirit will convince you of the truth about tithes, offerings and first fruit.
Prayer Point: Father, help me to abstain from stealing from you sanctuary, and help me to perform the required restitution for the damage I have done to Your honour, when I denied You of Your tithes, offerings and first fruits.
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