Six Reasons Why Non-Tithers Become Poor

by Pastor Dag Heward-MIlls

1. Non-tithers become poor because they have nothing to harvest.

FOR THEY HAVE SOWN THE WIND, AND THEY SHALL REAP THE WHIRLWIND: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.  Hosea 8:7

Prosperity in its most basic form consists of someone sowing a seed and later harvesting the returns. Not paying your tithes separates you from this most basic principle of sowing and reaping. When you do not pay your tithes you harm your finances because you take away the foundations of prosperity.

2. Non-tithers become poor because they do not attract blessings on their lives.

BRING YE ALL THE TITHES into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and POUR YOU OUT A BLESSING, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.   Malachi 3:10

Tithing attracts varied kinds of blessings because that is what the Word of God says. A person who is blessed is favoured and helped. Our lives on earth are very difficult. Jacob said of his life when Pharaoh asked him, “How old art thou?” “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: FEW AND EVIL HAVE THE DAYS OF THE YEARS OF MY LIFE BEEN, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage” (Genesis 47:9).

Job also said that the days of man were few and full of trouble. Even without a specific curse on your life you will encounter many problems and much difficulty. When you do not pay your tithe there is no blessing to counteract the existing problems of this life. How can you do well in life if no word of blessing is spoken over your miserable existence? Do not be surprised at the mounting poverty in your life if you do not pay tithes. The blessing that makes rich and adds no sorrow comes abundantly on the tither.

3. Non-tithers become poor because they are cursed.

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

YE ARE CURSED WITH A CURSE: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.    Malachi 3:8-9

There is a specific curse for people who do not pay tithes. It is one of the top twenty-five curses in this world. This curse on non-tithers only comes to compound the existing multiplicity of curses handed down to us from Adam, Noah and other generations. The curse on people who do not tithe synergistically works with the curses that your parents and ancestors may have incurred on themselves and their descendants. Almost all of us are descendants of people who were cursed for one reason or another through the things that they did.

One day, I became very worried when I discovered that it was likely that my ancestors were slave traders. I found out that there was an ancient fort built right in my father’s hometown which must have been used for slave trading. Obviously, I was the descendant of someone who was not sold into captivity. I was therefore likely to be the descendant of someone who sold his brother. Selling your brother would surely bring a curse into your family. Have you ever wondered why places that traded their brothers for trinkets and mirrors are the most poverty-stricken parts of the world today?

Not paying your tithes inflicts a severe additional curse to your life. Don’t forget that you are already labouring under Adam’s curse. You are also battling with the curse of Ham, if you are a descendant of Ham.

DEAR FRIEND, HOW MUCH MORE CAN YOU TAKE? IS IT NOT TIME TO DO SOMETHING THAT BRINGS A BLESSING? You need the blessing of a tithe payer to counteract all these terrible curses! Is it any wonder that you are becoming poorer as you refuse to pay your tithes?

4. Non-tithers become poor because devourers constantly eat their wealth.

AND I WILL REBUKE THE DEVOURER for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.  Malachi 3:11

The greatest blessing for paying tithes is that God rebukes the devourer for you. When you listen to government leaders of poor countries you get the impression that all their problems would be over if they were to have a little extra money. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Places which receive a lot of financial aid typically remain poor. This paradoxical picture exists because of the inability of the recipients to retain the money they receive.

Can you imagine what you would need to fill a bucket riddled with holes? If riches were defined as a bucket full of water, you would need so much of it to fill such a bucket. But when the holes are blocked you need just a little water to fill the bucket.

This is the mysterious blessing of the rebuked devourer. After the devourer is rebuked, it takes just a little to make you a rich person. When you are without this blessing you will seek better jobs and earn more money but always fail to become rich. When the devourer is rebuked, you may not earn that much but your bucket will fill quickly and soon begin to overflow.

Dear friend, this is what God promises to do when you pay your tithes. Move away from poverty today and receive the blessing of the rebuked devourer. Have you ever wondered why people get bigger and fatter in their middle ages? Often they are not eating more. In fact, many middle aged people go on diets to lose weight and still put on weight. What is the reason for the increase in weight? As people get older, their metabolism slows down. In other words the fire that burns up the fat slows down. If the metabolic fire in the body was consuming ten units of fat every day, it may drop to five units.

Suddenly, you would start to have an increase of an extra five units of fat available every day. With almost no effort, you put on weight and become broader and wider. That is why you can know someone’s age by his or her size. As you get older your metabolism drops, (the devourer is rebuked) and the weight gain (prosperity) occurs.

Indeed, non-tithers become poorer because of the presence of unchecked devourers in their lives.

5. Non-tithers become poor because the fruits of their fields are constantly destroyed.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and HE SHALL NOT DESTROY the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.   Malachi 3:11

The senseless loss of what you have gained through wastage, careless management, neglect, fire, accidents, riots, stealing, and even war are painful but really the works of the destroyer.

One of the great blessings of tithing is to have the destroyer rebuked. The destroyer is the brother to the devourer. The difference between the destroyer and the devourer is that the destroyer removes your wealth in a painful and mindless fashion. It is more painful to see the destroyer at work because there is no sense in the loss that you experience. Begin to pay your tithes and God has promised to rebuke the destroyer.

6. Non-tithers become poor because they lose their fruits before they get a chance to harvest.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine CAST HER FRUIT BEFORE THE TIME in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:11

Another reason why non-tithers become poor is that the fruits of their harvest are lost before they get a chance to harvest them. Non-tithers are cursed with the “failed harvest”. A failed harvest is failure to reap the corresponding and appropriate harvest for what you have invested.

Someone confidently taught that if you worked hard you would be rich. He continued, “People who are not rich do not work hard. People in developing countries should just roll up their sleeves and get to the job and prosperity will be their portion.”

But if you look around, you will discover many people who work very hard but are not rich! You will find people who work their heads off twelve hours a day and earn almost nothing. Yet a few miles from them you will find people who work for an hour a day and yet earn millions.

Yes, it is true that hard work should lead to prosperity but in many cases it does not. A bus driver in Sweden earns nineteen times what an equally good bus driver in Ghana earns. Why is this? Why don’t they reap the same amounts for the same hours of work and the same jobs? Why does one sow a hundred seeds and reap a hundred harvests and another sow a hundred seeds and reap twenty-three harvests?

This is where you find out how real failed harvests are. A failed harvest is the failure of someone to reap the corresponding and appropriate harvest for what he has invested. Many people experience this kind of failed harvest.

Often the causes of a failed harvest are beyond the power of the person experiencing the failed harvest. Why does a Mexican earn so little for his efforts compared to his fellow human being five miles across the border in America? Why is it that the fellow on American soil puts in the same amount of time and effort as a Mexican but earns nineteen times more? The causes and solutions of this dilemma are beyond an individual’s ability to correct. But God almighty promises the tither that He will prevent the harvest from falling unceremoniously to the ground. He will not allow your fruits to fall before the harvest time.

Is it any wonder that tithing is a major key to real prosperity? Are you surprised that non-tithers can become poorer by keeping ten percent of their income away from God?

What can you do without the help of God? How far can you go if God does not help you? It is time to begin tithing so that your profits will not be cast to the ground before you can enjoy them.

by Dag Heward-Mills

A best selling African author Dag Heward-Mills