He is considered one of the wisest men to ever live. His wisdom was a gift from God following their encounter in a dream. His written work therefore takes on greater significance as therein lay divine wisdom. In considering the secret to wealth and prosperity King Solomon wrote the following in the book of Proverbs 3:9-10
Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
It is important to be mindful that he was speaking in an Agrarian Age. Barns were storehouses for agricultural produce during this period. In the modern age this principle is just as powerful however our storehouses today vary from bank accounts and other methods of storing wealth.
The prophet Joel wrote in Joel 2:24 in speaking about the overflow blessings of the Lord
The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
Jesus said in Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Paul in his letter to church in Corinth wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:6
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
To honour the Lord means to show Him respect, reverence, admiration, adoration and praise. Honouring with your wealth or substance simply means put Him first and make Him the Lord (owner) of your finances. This is the tricky part for many people as the common response I get is God does not need any money. While this may be true as this is a universal principle you can donate to your temple, mosque, church, or any place of spiritual nourishment which is a form of honouring. Giving to the poor and less fortunate is also very good as Solomon said in Proverbs 19:17
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.
We help the poor not for a reward but because it is good to help others. It also pleases the Lord of the Heavens who in turn rewards us.
When we fulfil our part of the equation the Lord of the Universe fulfils the second part and fills our ‘barns’ with plenty. It is very important to understand who does the barn filling part of the equation. This is the element out of your control. It is best left out of your control as you may find people trying their best to prevent you from prospering. Your prosperity is in the hands of an all-knowing all-powerful God who is faithful to a 1000 generations.
Honouring the Lord with your substance
The life of Jacob is a good example. He made a vow to give a 10th of all his increase to the Lord in Genesis 28:20-22
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
How would this work out practically? Jacob’s wealth was in the form of livestock. Every 10th animal born of his flocks would be put on the altar and sacrificed to the Lord. We can use the same argument that God does not need any animals. This is true however the point of the offering is to show honour by acknowledging, showing respect, admiration and to offer praise to the Lord. It was a human act that was a form of worship to the creator.
When you are really committed to this principle no one can sabotage you. You may be in business and people not keep their word and deny you contracts. You may be expecting one outcome and make plans for it only to find the goalpost has been moved and you are snookered in a dead-end situation and facing losing money. The same thing happened to Jacob in his business dealings with his uncle Laban.
As recorded in Genesis 30:35 Laban tricked Jacob and did not keep his part of the bargain. They had agreed for Jacob to be paid the spotted or speckled animals born of the livestock. Laban however removed from the herd all the spotted and speckled animals. Because Jacob was committed to honouring the Lord with his wealth, the Lord showed up to rescue him and made him to prosper supernaturally. In Genesis 31:11-13 Jacob spoke about an experience he had where the Angel of the Lord appeared to him.
Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for iI have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.
Not only did the Angel remind him of the vow he made (to tithe), He informed Jacob that He saw all the injustices that was done to him by his uncle Laban. The Angel made it clear to Jacob that he would now prosper despite what was being done to him. Creative ideas were given to Jacob to prosper and the result was recorded in Genesis 30:43
Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
The First Fruit of your increase
The first fruit is different from the tithing but the underlying principle of acknowledging and giving thanks to the Lord are the same. Strictly speaking first fruit during the Agrarian Age was the first produce or yield of the harvest.
I’m dipping into some Levitical law now to build my case with the full knowledge that we are not under the Law. There are however ancient principles that if done with understanding are still as powerful as ever. Even before the law was written by Moses, we see the principle of bringing first fruit offerings to God, in the story of Cain and Abel. If honouring the Lord with this method created blessings thousands of years ago, I believe honouring the lord with your first ‘harvest’ is still relevant today.
Leviticus 23:10 stated
“When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest,”. It is to be set apart as holy unto God!
The apostle Paul built on the principle of first fruits when he wrote in Romans 11:16
for if the FIRSTFRUITS be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
Ezekiel 44:30 states on the first fruit offering:
The best of all the firstfruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household.
Some advocate that the first fruit and the tithe are the same thing however I believe that these are two separate things. The first fruit was an offering that showed reverence and obedience to God. It was a bold statement that showed the giver was trusting God to be their provider and their source. It represented that the giver of the offering had total faith in God to bless their future harvest.
Observations and Applications
If you are in business or a career that is filled with uncertainty you need assurances. Life is full of uncertainty however there are principles we can place our total faith in as they work every time. You may be in business and expect agreements to be respected only to find yourself like Jacob in my story disappointed. If you are a person of faith, you do not have to be discouraged or lose heart when things don’t go to plan. If you are a person who honours the Lord of the Universe with your possessions and give to help the poor, you will prosper.
As you fulfil your part of the prosperity equation the Lord of the Heavens will fulfil His part. No one can outwit you or cause you to be worse off financially in this scenario. The Lord has your back, and it is He who will ensure your barns are filled with plenty and your ‘Vats’ will overflow. This method is recession proof, sabotage proof and guaranteed to cause you to emerge victorious in every scenario.
Practical application today
In practice speaking personally as I am in business, every new source of revenue to my company I make the first invoice or first part of the invoice for example weekly rate or the whole invoice is given as a first fruit offering. Tithing is done separately to this. When I worked in industry and fully understood the principle, each new raise in salary or increase in rate as a contractor would represent a first fruit offering. If I changed from company A to Company B and company B’s rate of pay was higher, the difference or increase at company B is what I am referring to would be the first fruit offering.
This should be done as a purely voluntary endeavour based on your own understanding on these principles. There is no compulsion or legal requirement to tithe or give anything. Giving should always be a joyful wilful act and never done from coercion or feelings of guilt.
In this article I am simply sharing some principles of wealth creation that I believe work and create enormous blessings in the lives of those who practice them. When I was younger I would read wealth creation material from the heart position of how to get or acquire wealth. The better position I have learned as I aged was to approach these principles with a desire to give or help others. On that basis I encourage you to take a leap of faith and Honour the Lord with your possessions. Watch in amazement as your ‘barns’ get supernaturally filled. Writing is my hobby and I always feel something new bubbling inside me to write about. This is an example of a part of the equation stating your Vats will overflow with new wine and oil. It means you will have constant resupply and never run out.
