How to give first fruit

Proverbs 3:9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

Giving is about dependence on God and has very little to do with amounts. There are some who give an amount which appears big but when they could have given more. That is not pleasing to God. I have talked about firstfruit principles in previous weeks now its time to go practical. How can someone actually do it practically without breaking their backs and yet do it cheerfully? 

Giving your full salary, moreover gross pay before taxes are excluded as firstfruit looks far out of reach but not impossible. Giving it all at once is highly commended, but if you give it cheerfully in amounts you are able to handle according to your faith it will be also great. God is able to meet our needs when we give in faith supernaturally. But I am sure some people will be frustrated in giving if the landlord knocks on their door, their family goes hungry or lack transport to work if they have given all their salary! They may not have reached the level of depending on God as their source and end up complaining with God. They may blame God and the pastors for all their troubles the following month because they never new any better. Sometimes even the pastors haven't explained it well enough. Sometimes they think of them as tough other times they think of them as too soft. I would like to be too soft this time and yet in the end you will gladly obey without feeling any burden to give. 

Now I have to be honest, if you tell someone the whole truth about giving, you either revive them to give or offend them not to give at all. But the truth remains the truth. We cannot beat people to obedience,  we need to be gentle shepherds who explain everything to leave no stone unturned. This is what this blog will do. It either makes you think God is a good God who wants everyone to participate in the work He is doing in this world or you think otherwise. If you are not willing to hear anything anymore,  better stop here and wait on there blogs where I will write on other topics. Now that you are still reading get ready to get on the plan of giving firstfruit. 

How can a fresh convert to Christianity as well as ablong time convert participate in this great privilege of giving firstfruit and see God's blessings manifest on their behalf?

Let me first stuttle you, do you know that the Bible does not specify a percentage to give as firstfruit? Point to note: firstfruit is quite different from a tithe and offerings although some witers think firstfruit is the tithe. And they have their reasons which somehow hold water. 

I have read a little bit on this firstfruit topic only to realise that Jewish rabbis say that the Jews brought a portion of the harvest in baskets as first fruit an amount not less than 1/60th to 1/40th (1.6-2.5%) of the harvest. This was different from the tithe which is 1/10th. The offerings on the other hand were freewill. This means a tithe,  firstfruit, offering can be given everymonth if you do the math. By the way God is a God of numbers, that is why we have a whole book of Numbers in the on the Bible. So you also need to love numbers! 

So if you want to give the firstfruit all at once in January based on the proportions, do the math. 1/60 or 1/40 x of your gross earning a month x 12months of what you earn gives you how much? If you earn 1 million as a gross pay a month,  it means the first fruit is 1/60 x 1,000,000 = 16,700 or 1/40 x 1,000,000 = 25,000. This means according to your faith, the minimum one can give as a firstfuit is 16,700 or 25,000. Multiply that over 12 months and give it all at once as you are led. This should range from 16,700 x 12 = 200,400 to 25,000 x 12 = 300,000. Am sure you can stretch your faith to put in an envelope not less that 200,400 Uganda shillings! Or 300,000 for that matter. (Apply the same to other currencies). Why these percentages? Some people actually give so little as their firstfruit, what the Bible says they withholding more than is meet simply because the preacher has told them to give firstfruit as free will. So they cheat themselves of the blessings that would have been theirs!

Now some preachers, writers including me, have taken it deeper by saying firstfruit means you give all the amount you have earned that month. Is it bad? No its not because the blessings shall be yours in abundance if you give it all anyway, why not? 

A genuine believer may ask, pastor, I would like to give all my salary, 100% as firstfruit how can I do it? I feel I want to be a part of what God is doing in a big way and not limit him to the 1/60 or 1/40 fractions. How can I do it since I have needs that won't allow me give it all at once? You can give it weekly in four measures the following month after your first pay of January so that in one month you are done and yet still giving your tithe and offering! Is it too much for you to give all the three? It's a faith and heart issue, no one will beat you to obedienceor strike you to death for not doing it, do it out of love for God. So when you do the math divide the 1m into 4 parts how much will be bringing per week in Feb? 250k. On the other hand, if you divide that salary by 12months, = 1,000,000/12 = 83,400 to be given each month. 

But I have to stress that this is a heartfelt matter, do not enter this agreement with God and stop it along the way. God won't punish you but you don't want to displease your friend and the bishop of your soul, would you? It requires discipline and consistency. You can get someone to keep you accoubtable, it can be your wife, a brother or siter or even your man of God. 

I have laboured to give you all the information for you to be part of this awesome giving. I for one, started not so long ago, I think last year to be exact, to give firstfruit yet I am 20 years in salvation partly because it was not emphasised in the church I was attending. Secondly it was hard pepper to even think about giving my first salary after getting my first job since no one had taught me so or laboured to break it down for me. All i was told was i have to give it because you need to appreciate the lord who has given you the job. The reasoning was if you have been surviving without the job, then you can survive without it two months after getting it. How could I then travel to work since I had no other means of earning? And then one would tell you God will supply and to me i had doubt he would now that he was doing so by the job i had just got! It really made no sense at that time.

I did not know better that grace can be extended in giving firstfruit this way! We started by giving a lumpsum amount, about 20% of our gross pay. Right now we want to take it deeper by giving 100% of the gross and we shall embark on one of those plans I have listed. 

Theres such a thing called baby steps. Before the baby runs, they make little steps. Atleast start from somewhere. You can start with a 1% if that's where your faith is and go on increasing it. I have no space to write about those who earn wages which are not stable or those in business who earn in profits. But if you have your earning records, and your heart is right towards God, still you can do the math and be faithful to give firstfruit. With time it won't bother you to give 200%, 500%, 1000% etc as firstfruit because of the abundance of God's blessings upon your life. Every year take your level of firstfruit giving to another level but you cannot increase the measure of your giving if you do not start at all! And if you are legalistic, you will be offended if you hear people give very huge amounts out of their love for God. You may even start to think God loves them more than you and yet they did not put limits on Him. Grace makes you do more than anyone under the law could. New testament believer, you cannot stay on 1.6-2.5%, or even 100% as firstfruit when God is your source!

A parked car cannot be given direction, it's only a moving car that can be steered! Am sure as the Lord leads you can start on your firstfruits giving journey. To those who are strong in your giving we ought to help those who are weak. It is what I have laboured to do here. Give your firstfruit today! Do not delay!

Further scriptures 

1 Corinthians 9:22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some.