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Can we not see that one of the things we have now to
overcome, as a CONDITION to even GETTING INTO THE KINGDOM, is this
very thing? Some of you will say, "I can't afford it." Some will
say "I just can't get anyone to take care of my stock." Or, "I
just can't leave my job, or my business." Brethren, WHERE THERE'S
A WILL, THERE'S A WAY! An OVERCOMER is one who OVERCOMES those
obstacles---who has the WILL and the DETERMINATION, with much
earnest prayer and FAITH in God's help, to FIND A WAY, to overcome
the obstacle. God tells you to COME! God permits obstacles,
trials, tests. But we must ride over those---master those
circumstances---if we are truly CHRISTIANS. We must take it
earnestly, diligently, to God in PRAYER, and then BELIEVE and TRUST
HIM to bring about circumstances, with our diligent and determined
efforts, to make it possible for us to GO this year to the FEAST OF
TABERNACLES. This is ONE OF THE TESTS. We must not fail!
HOW We Can Afford It
Would God command us to do something (and this is
commanded as a statute FOREVER, Lev. 23:14) and then not provide a
way to make it possible for us to AFFORD to do it?
I can't take space here to go into the matter thoroughly,
as will be done later, but very briefly, STUDY those texts in your
Bible. OPEN your mind to God's truth, when it is NEW LIGHT to us.
Lev. 27:30, 32, 34. The tithe is HOLY unto the Eternal.
If it is HOLY, then it is for a HOLY, or SPIRITUAL use,---or, in
other words, for GOD'S WORK---the work of the ministry---the
carrying out of the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world
and PREACH THE GOSPEL!"
Numbers 18:6,8,20-21,23-26: God gave His ministers the
charge over the tithe and hallowed things, FOREVER. The ministers
(under the Old Covenant the Levites) had no inheritance in the
land. They were not engaged in farming, business, or any means of
earning a living. But the Eternal gave them "ALL the tenth in
Israel for an inheritance, for the service which they serve." And
this, too, is a statute FOREVER throughout your generations.
After the captivity, when some of the Jews, (tribes of
Judah, Benjamin and Levi) went from Babylon back to Jerusalem to
rebuild the temple, these people, realizing how their people had
been punished by captivity for disobeying God's commands and
ordinances, became very strict in getting back to them. Notice
Neh. 10:37-38. They brought not only a tenth, but it was the
first tenth, "UNTO THE PRIESTS." And the "TITHES of our ground,
unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in
all the cities of our tillage."
It was the ministers, the Levites, specially chosen of
God and not self appointed or voted in by men, who took the tithes
from the people. The people did not appoint a "board" of their own
choosing, or by the will of a few who desire to rule, with a lay-
member treasurer to take the tithes---God's HOLY money---as so many
organize to do today, thus usurping authority by the power of this
money to dictate to God's called ministers. Tithes were paid
direct to the ministers of GOD'S CHOOSING---ministers whose entire
time was devoted to the work of the ministry. These tithes (the
first tenth of every person's income) are GOD'S, and the Eternal
tells our people today they are ROBBING GOD by not paying HIS