By now, all of you are aware that we are going to celebrate our 4th anniversary as a church on 2nd September. We shall do this in a way we have not done before - honoring God by praising and worshipping Him for a good part of that Sunday service. Before that day, we decided to review the things which have brought us great success in the eyes of God. The first lesson was only doing what God commands. The second was the understanding that we are building a house not for any other person or thing, but for God. This week, we shall talk about why LAT has never experienced financial depression.

While a student at the University, one day I heard God's audible voice saying, "If you joyfully obey the laws of giving and receiving, you will never see financial depression in your life." Although this instruction was for me as an individual, I believe it also applies to all Christian owned organizations. It is my opinion that such organizations - profit or non-profit - should give to God at least 10% of their earnings. When Abraham gave a tithe of all to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20), it was not from his personal belongings but rather what his ‘company' had taken from their enemies. As LAT, we give to God our tithes because we are following the example of our father Abraham.

Rick Joyner once wrote: "I have not yet met a single Christian who is faithful to tithe and has chronic financial problems. There may be some because there are other things we can do that can open the door to a spirit of poverty in our lives, but I have not yet met any." If God blesses faithful individuals who tithe, it means He also blesses churches and other organizations that do tithe. LAT is testimony to this.

However, we do not stop at tithing; we also give money to other causes as God leads us. For example, we pay university tuition for students, in addition to other charity endeavors which benefit some of our own church members. It is no wonder, therefore, that we have never seen financial depression.

The other important thing we do is save a certain percentage of money every time the offerings are in excess of our weekly expenditures. In the event that the offerings of a particular week are not enough to meet our financial obligations, we draw from the savings. We learnt this from the life and ministry of Kenneth E. Hagin who once got into financial troubles because he took lightly God's command to put aside some money for a rainy day. Later, the Lord appeared to Him and told him that another bad season was coming, therefore he should save some money. This time he obeyed God. When the tough times came, the ministry was not affected.

The Bible says: "There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty" (Proverbs 11:24). For that matter, although LAT scatters by giving (which includes tithing), we also save by withholding some money.

The other reason we are in a good financial position as a church is because we always try not to do things that the Lord has not sanctioned. Many years ago, I heard Roberts Liardon say, "The Lord will not pay for projects He did not order." When churches consistently embark on projects that heaven did not instruct, financial hardships result. Yet it does not end there; coercion, threats and other tactics to get money from people start.

Lastly, our church has experienced genuine financially prosperity because the entire leadership can confidently say: "I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel" (Acts 20:33). Therefore, God has honored our financial integrity with financial ease.

Let all of us pray that we shall never deviate from these spiritual financial principles. The history of what has made us financially prosperous should never be forgotten.

God bless you.