Introduction
Wherever you are on the path, I hope that you live the principle of tithing. It is an important principle taught in the Bible and in Joel's works. Tithing is a spiritual activity generated by love and expressed as gratitude. Joel says it cannot be taught. It is an activity which grows from the experience of illumination. Experiencing God changes us. Our concern shifts from "getting" to "giving."
We tithe to the avenue of our good. Tithing is our "thank you" to God for all that the Spirit gives us. It is a way we confirm our understanding of Supply...that God is our Source, the source of all good, all nourishment, all sustenance.
The amount is not as important as the practice of giving "first fruits," not "spare time and spare change."
This cannot be forced or taught. It comes from the opening of your soul. When the Light begins to crack and break your material shell, God's Love cannot be contained. It must be shared. I hope you come to experience this. Economic times have no bearing on this. Joel teaches that in bad times, fortunes have been made. In good times, fortunes have been lost. Forget the "times", and live from our spiritual center. Honor your Source by pouring and acknowledging where you have found your spiritual gifts.
Tithing
"Oh, there are millions of people who have pointed out that they cannot tithe because 10% of their income is too much to give to a spiritual activity. They can't afford it.
They would only have to look at men who are now giving 60, 70 and 80% of their income to spiritual activities, and still have wealth left over every year, to know that it's a fallacy to believe that there is anyone on earth who cannot tithe if, if he can meet the requirements of tithing.
Probably I shouldn't have said requirements because there is only one requirement to tithing, only one. One has to feel gratitude for one's spiritual activity.
If one has gratitude for that, 10% becomes a very small amount out of 100%.
If one's spiritual activity brings peace of heart, peace of mind, peace of soul, and sometimes even bodily comfort, physical health, moral stamina, 10% is very little.
But, let no one believe that they will be rewarded by giving that 10%. For one cannot bargain with God.
That 10% is a free will offering of gratitude with no strings attached.
And, if one cannot give it in that sense, let them not give it. Let them cut it down to 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, until such time as it begins to flow as gratitude.
Then we find that gratitude is a quality of love, and love is God.
And the moment that gratitude is flowing, God is flowing, love is flowing. And all of the wheels of life are lubricated."
Joel, from Tape 247 Side 2
1948 San Francisco Lecture Series II
TITHING
"How can we demonstrate being in the world and not of it? Just to teach you one phase of it today I am going to take up the subject under the title of "Tithing" or "Giving".
"Sooner or later we all are going to learn the value of gratitude, but that is only one little facet in the vast subject of Love. Tithing is something that carries us to our highest sense of gratitude. Ordinarily, tithing is taken to mean that if we give ten percent or so of our income to some charitable or spiritual purpose, we will in some mysterious way have pleased God and so will be rewarded.
"I think, personally, that this is one of the most dangerous teachings that can be given out for the simple reason that there is no word of Truth in it, and ultimately it will find us without a prop. There is no virtue in giving when there is any sense of a future tense connected with it. If our giving - whether in contribution to a charity, a church, or a teacher - carries with it any sense or thought that we will receive some benefit from it, it is best not to give.
"No. Giving should always be from the standpoint of gratitude for that which ALREADY IS . . for that which already has been ESTABLISHED from the beginning. For instance: We cannot 'get' health and we cannot 'get' wealth; we cannot 'get' happiness or peace. Those things were established FROM THE BEGINNING. They were part of your consciousness, and they will UNFOLD in proportion to your turning WITHIN for that unfoldment, and in proportion to your devotion to the spiritual sense of life.
"Now, if you can feel a sense of gratitude for that message, for the avenue through which that message is brought to you, and if out of the fullness of your heart - you 'feel' that sense of gratitude that IMPELS you to give your 'mite' or your last penny, then you will find that tithing is one of the greatest blessings ever given to human consciousness.
"There is no greater blessing than tithing when it is the outpouring of a sincere sense of gratitude for the revelation of God as your individual experience. Certainly tithing in that sense is 'gratitude', and gratitude is one of the facets of love.
"But there is even a stronger law than that which goes with tithing. Humanly you believe that your present income is the 'limit' of your income, and humanly you do not know how to increase it. If you did, you would be doing so. Now, when we begin 'tithing', we certainly declare that this tithing is NOT coming from 'our' income; therefore it has to come from God. It is not from ‘me’; it is from God. It is GOD'S support of the activity of Truth in human affairs, or in human ways.
"Let us assume for the moment that God, imparting Truth to human consciousness, compels us to interpret THAT IMPARTATION as a book or church or teacher. (You must understand here that God 'needs' NONE of these avenues; God needs no mediator.) God and you being ONE, all of this could be taking place in your consciousness without any 'person' talking to you . . without any person writing a book. Therefore the fact that we are here, that these avenues are here, is our authority at this moment to interpret it as God's imparting of His Word in this manner, through these channels.
"Why? Only that you require these 'channels' for the Word of God to reach you until the time comes when YOUR ONENESS WITH GOD - your CONSCIOUS oneness with God - enables you to accept the Message without all this.
"Therefore, since that is true, there must be these means provided in the meantime. And when we say that 'God provides them' that is not really true. No; God knows nothing about human teachers or teachings, human places or human worships. For if God had made our churches, none would ever have been bombed or burned. These WE create through our necessity for them.
"We are not yet at that point of consciousness where we sufficiently realize our ONENESS WITH GOD so as to receive these messages without mediation. Therefore we need these places and teachers and books.
"However, inasmuch as there is nothing personal about it, let us call ALL of this THE ACTIVITY OF MIND OR GOD, and let us see that the activity of Mind or God interprets Itself to us AS teachers, churches and books. And then let us see that the activity of Mind, acting through or AS us, must support that enterprise.
"Let us agree, then, to call it a Transfer Agent for GOOD, and say: "I will contribute this particular sum every day or every week to this spiritual purpose, not out of 'my' income or the 'kindness of my heart' but merely AS A TRANSFER AGENT FOR GOOD (God) maintaining Its Own Infinite Activity. You soon will find that not one penny of that tithing will be coming from your pocket and you will find, further, that ultimately your income will increase - not merely to make up that amount, but to go much further than that.
"We are saying this only to point out to you here what actually does happen, for you are going eventually to carry this much further. You will ultimately declare that every family obligation you have - or any other obligation - is not your personal responsibility but that of the Christ, and is therefore not to be met out of your personal income.
"Thus you will become THE TRANSFER AGENT for supporting your family or friends or relatives abroad and so on.
"None of it, you will find, will come from your principle . . IF YOU CATCH THE CENTRAL POINT THAT NO PERSONAL DEMAND IS EVER MADE OF YOU, BUT ON THE CHRIST.
"Not that the Christ supports the activity of this life, this job, this teacher or this book; no, no. You yourself - THROUGH YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS ACTIVITY OF GOD..GOOD - have brought to you those who to our sense are avenues or channels of support.
"You must make A CONSCIOUS DECISION that you will be the transfer agent. As soon as you are presented with the need or the call, you will accept that the Christ has made a demand on the CHRIST OF YOU and that you can fulfill it, not out of your personal income, but out of that which the Christ gives you. We read in the Bible that the widow had only a morsel, yet fed the prophet. Had the 'supply' come from the little she had, it would never have sufficed. But the demand was not made on her personal supply. The demand was made - ON THE CHRIST.
"Again, four or five thousand people sat around waiting to be fed by Jesus 'with a few loaves and fishes'! Jesus was never in a position to feed so many people from His personal store of supply . . . never. Unless Jesus had been able to see that the demand on Him was a demand ON THE CHRIST ITSELF . . . that it was The Christ making the demand on The Christ . . . it could not have been done.
"And again, He healed the multitudes. If any individual ever gets the idea that he has enough human understanding to heal a disease - Heaven help the patient! No . . . Every call for healing is a call on The Christ, and all a practitioner can ever do is be an avenue through which or AS WHICH The Christ is acting to dispel the illusion of sense. It makes no difference if multitudes reach out for That, even if multitudes right here reach out for healing. It would not be a personal or human man that would respond. But The Christ, acting or appearing AS ME, could just as well meet the demands for a thousand as for one. THE CHRIST IS UNLIMITED.
"Never believe that any 'human' being has any quality of his own that will produce a healing . . . or that any of you have enough money to support churches or practitioners or teachers. BUT AS THE CHRIST - any one of you could support all of this activity. You have only to CONSCIOUSLY ACCEPT the responsibility. You have only to say: "Father, I accept the responsibility to meet my generous share of the activity of the Christ movement here 'through' me." But that does not mean you have the 'personal' responsibility of supporting them.
"No . . . all the responsibility you have is - TO MAKE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION THAT YOU ARE PART OF THIS WORK - and that, just as The Christ is operating through the lecturer or teacher, so The Christ is operating through you, for the benefit of this whole Christ Activity.
"Let us remember this subject: Tithing. It makes no difference whether you make the decision to give ten, five or one percent . . or twenty percent . . of your ‘income’. The point is: YOU MUST CONSCIOUSLY MAKE THE DECISION TO BE A PART OF THE SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY OF THE WORLD AND TO FULFILL YOUR PART IN IT.
"If you are called on for a healing . . . yes, if you should be called on to come right up here on this platform this morning and finish the talk . . . BE READY! If that call is made on you, it is only The Christ making a demand ON THE CHRIST, and any of you could fulfill it by consciously making your decision to be a part of The Christ Life.
"There is a reason why all of this is important and it is NOT that of becoming healthier or richer humans. No . . . it is that - YOU COME INTO THE REALIZATION OF YOUR CHRIST IDENTITY - and stop being even 'good' humans. We read in the Bible: "The EARTH is the Lord's, AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF." How much of that is yours? How MUCH is yours ALL OF IT! All of it. Why? Because "Son, ALL that I have is Thine."
"Do you see what I am trying to get at? Not to make you a richer human; but to make you aware of the ‘fact’ that - THE ENTIRE KINGDOM OF GOD IS YOURS! "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." All that belongs to the Father belongs to you. "Son, All that I have is THINE."
"You will never know that while you are counting it in dollar bills. You will know it ONLY when you completely release yourself from the belief that you 'have' so much and 'have not' so much, and begin to make the acknowledgement that ALL THE EARTH belongs to the Father . . BUT . . ALL THAT THE FATHER HATH BELONGS TO YOU. "Son, all that I have is thine.
"What is the most essential point in becoming aware of God? And that really is the most important question that can ever be asked. There is no other question that is quite so important as that: What is the most essential point in becoming aware of God?
"What is the most necessary step to us to take in becoming aware of God?
"Well, the most important point, the most important step for us to take is this: TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD TO BE ALL THERE IS TO US. When we acknowledge God to be OUR MIND; when we acknowledge God to be the LIFE OF US . . the Soul, the Spirit OF US; when we make the acknowledgement that God is THE ONLY ELEMENT AND ONLY ACTIVITY AND ONLY LAW OF OUR BEING . . . we then have taken the most essential step in becoming aware of God.
"There is no selfhood apart from God. God is ONE . . Infinite . . Indivisible . . APPEARING AS each 'individual'. The ALL-ness of God appears individually AS 'you'. You are not a part of God. You are not a particle of God. It is not like the 'drop with the Ocean'. There is not that relationship at all.
"YOU ARE THE ALL-NESS OF GOD! YOU are the ALL-ness of GOD! The Allness of God 'appears individually' AS YOU. It is like the allness of the number 12 appearing in EVERY number 12, whether as pies or grains of sand. Always the entire number contains the TOTAL VALUE of 12. And so, this TOTALITY OF GOD appears AS individual you. YOU are ALL the Mind, ALL the Life, ALL the Intelligence. You could not be 'more' Life . . more Immortality. YOU ARE IMMORTALITY. You always have existed and always will exist and you cannot be 'more' immortal than immortality . . cannot be more truthful than being Truth. No . . . either you are ALL of the Truth or you are not Truth. Can a person be ninety-nine percent mortal? No. Either you are mortal or you are not mortal. There are human degrees of being mortal, but that is not immortality.
"The same is true of EVERY facet of God. You cannot be 'partly' intelligent and yet be of God. You are the SUM TOTAL OF INTELLIGENCE. Therefore, God's Infinite Intelligence is YOUR 'individual' intelligence.
"And so, the most essential step is: "I, of mine own self, am nothing." "GOD is the ALL-ness of me . . the Mind . . the Life . . the Soul of me." Then let THAT come through your so-called 'human' consciousness to make Itself known as AWARENESS. It is for this purpose we have meditation, reading, lectures, class teaching.
"All of these are ‘avenues’ or ‘means’ through which you become AWARE of your ONENESS WITH GOD . . become aware of GOD APPEARING AS THE SUM TOTAL OF YOU. The purpose of class teaching, lectures, reading, metaphysical literature, is only to bring you to the AWARENESS that you are NOW what you always have been - THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD! To repeat, the most essential point in becoming aware of God is making the acknowledgement that GOD IS THE SUM TOTAL OF ME . . God is the Substance of my body . . God is the actual Substance of my body. Otherwise we would have God . . Infinite All . . and a human body. "
Tithing Teaches Obedience, Trust and Discipline
Proverbs 3:9
Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.
A tithe was a requirement of Old Testament law. All Israelites were to give 10 percent of everything earned and grown to the Temple (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 14:24; 2 Chronicles 31:5). In fact, the Old Testament Law required multiple tithes which made the total to around 23.3 percent, not the 10 percent which is generally considered the tithe amount today.
Paul teaches that followers should set aside a portion of their income to support the church (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
Sowing Generously
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Exodus 23:19 "You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 26:2 that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name.
Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
