Church people are a peculiar group of individuals.  They are comprised of a group of people with very different mindsets.  Although the man or woman of God can preach a message or great messages, he or she cannot determine or know just how those messages will be received and by whom they will be received.  Having said that, people receive, gather and make their own judgment on things said differently, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO BLESSINGS AND BEING BLESSED!

Tithing comes with promises!  It does.  However, what I’ve found throughout my years in church is that tithing isn’t the issue!  The promises that are associated with tithing ARE REAL! It is the expectation from those who give that make all the difference!

Expectations from tithing range from none to crazy!  Both ends of the spectrum are extreme and wrong.  You should always expect a return any financial investment!  God cannot lie!  The key is to provide HIM with something, some action, some work, a project, an opportunity to bless the fruit of your hands!  Allow me to be more detailed.  Don’t just provide something, but the presence of God’s blessing on what you do or want to implement isn’t the absence of preparation, research, and/or good sound business acumen.  In other words, don’t do rash, crazy, erratic things and then wait for God to catch you!  That’s not a blessing.  That is foolishness.  God is not foolishness, God is a strategist.  God orchestrates, plans, implements BEFORE the need occurs and if you’re going to be blessed doing anything, you need to employ a similar mindset of strategy!

Instead of looking for checks to just pop up in the mail from nowhere, use the gifts within that were planted in you to prosper!  Using those gifts may require college, a job for experience, joining a group of like-minded entrepreneurs, attending business workshops; the list could go on forever.  The point is you, the individual must know the gift within you and use it wisely.  In doing so, one exercises his or her expectation for greater than he or she has currently.

The other end of expectations is having none at all.  It’s sad to see people do things, the right things and then feel guilty for wanting a return so instead they simply settle.  These are they who never will admit their secret desire to be rich because they believe the false conception that; “money is the root of all evil.”  The correct saying is; “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”  They will live beneath their means trying to prove that they deserve something and waiting on someone to bestow it upon them.   NO ONE will ever give you anything especially while you protest how you do not want it, do not deserve it and all the other things one is trained for feel compelled to say in the name of being humble.  First the expectations are a lie and false.  How or why in the world would you serve a God that you feel you must lie to?  You were created in the image of God who loves nice things and clothed this world so beautifully!  HE knows that you desire to have things and even acknowledge that in the Word as well as the fact that it is HIS desire for us! (1 John 3:2)

Secondly, the lack of expectations places one in a holding pattern. It is a pattern of lack and limitations leading to poverty and creating a cycle of poverty for generations to come!  Once a mindset has been established, believed, lived, experienced and shared; it becomes a stronghold!  Poverty is the hardest cycle to break because it lies in one’s mind!  “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”! (Proverbs 23:7)  Your actions cannot ever be greater than your thought process!  So the image of looking and appearing to be ‘less than’ for the sake of being humble becomes your clothing, your mindset and lifestyle.  The worst part is that it is a mindset you created and not the idea that God had for you!  A lie believed has the same effect as the truth.  This way of life becomes the reality and while a person may serve in the church like this; he or she will always harbor ill-will as they watch others prosper.

Your faith as you give your tithes is the faith in YOU!  It is easy to believe in everyone around you because you alone know all your insecurities and shortcomings!  Even people with whom you may not like you will find a reason for them to be blessed and not yourself based on how you view who you are.  The reality is that even the people you admire or deem in your mind to be worthy aren’t perfect!  The blessing of prosperity isn’t given to the perfect! 

Prosperity is a gift one gives to his or her self, based how well he or she cultivates the seed left inside of them aka a gift! When you know your gift, when you believe in the gift and use it wisely, your tithes bring you into Covenant with God and the promises of tithing.

What are you expecting and from whom?  God equipped man with all he needs to be prosperous!  It’s up to you to believe it and walk in it.  It doesn’t require one to be under-handed, sneaky, spiteful, vicious or ignorant; just obedient and consistent.

EXPECTATIONS ARE EVERYTHING!