Terumah-fy Your Life

What I am about to show you is deep.  It is awesome.  It has revolutionized my finances, the way I look at salvation, and the way that I see most things in Scripture. Considering the fact that this has a very large part to do with money, I have to lay a large amount of foundation.  When it comes to the Old Testament, people do not have a problem except when it comes to food and money.  The simple fact is that It is all God's Word and remains forever.  If I told you, "Do not sell your daughter to prostitution", no one would say, "Wait a minute, you're putting us back under the Law"!  The same goes if I told you not to be intimate with your mother (Leviticus 18), even though those commands are nowhere in the New Testament.  Just remember, This isn't about God liking your more or less.  You are still saved.  I'll see you in Heaven.  We'll all hang out with Jesus and party with the angels.  Now that that's out of the way, let's press on.
If you are to read any further, repeat this to your self, "My mind is open, My mind is alert, and I'm ready to be revolutionized by the living Word of God".  You ready?  LETS GET IT ON!

1 Kings 17:8-15

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widowwas there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

12 So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’”

15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.

Now, as always, there is a lot going on here.  Elijah proclaims that there is going to be a drought for several years.  The problem is that when it comes to pass, he is sitting there with no food along with a bunch of other good hearted people.  The Lord tells him to go to Zarephath and there is a woman that is going to tend to his needs.  Upon arrival, a very interesting exchange takes place.  He sees a woman and asks her for some water and then asks her for some bread.  She says that she has only enough supply for her son and herself to have a meal of bread and water and then they are going to starve to death.  THen Elijah tells her to bring him some food first.  

Understand that women in that day were not able to get a job and support themselves.  They were dependent upon the generosity of the people and the temple.  So is Elijah the most self centered person in the entire world?  Or is it more than meets the eye and he is talking about a principle that has been lost through the centuries?

The principle is this: give the first part to the man of God (mentor, pastor, etc) and the rest don't run out!  This is what the Jews simply called: Terumah.

Jesus actually taught on this as well in Matthew 6:19: 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Your heart will follow your money.  WHerever you put your money, your heart naturally wraps around that. You see things all the time on tv that people are getting all offended over things that you don't care about.  It's because they have invested money into it. Let's disperse some things.  I am being as real as I can be with this, remember that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.  We're all on a journey toward God together.  Now, there are some statements that Christians all over the place make, and we think they make us sound spiritual, but in fact it makes us sound stupid.  For instance, "Im not about money."  Yes you are.  If you weren't about money, you'd starve to death.  What you are really trying to say is "money doesn't rule me.  I dont love it" That's perfectly fine.  There is nothing wrong with having a balanced view on money. The truth is that we are all about money.  Let me just say it this way, Jesus Christ was about money. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."  What topic did Jesus speak on more than any other one?  MONEY!  Jesus Christ spoke more about money than prayer, faith, heaven, and hell COMBINED!  

The Bible is the word of God, right?  There are over 2,000 scriptures about money in the whole bible.  

Another thing that we say all the time is, "you shouldn't give to get".  First off, with less than 3% of people tithing, is giving to get really our problem?  With most of the people that we come into contact with in the world are either lukewarm chair warmers or completely turned away from God, is this really an issue of such massive proportions that we need to say to not give to get?  No we aren't giving at all.  Jesus said, what you give, will come back to you pressed down shaken together and running over.  This was the guy that predicted His own death and resurrection and ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF!  He might be on to something.  Trust what He says.  He also told Nicodemus that whatever your heart wraps around will birth in the natural.  If you want something to birth into the natural, one of the best things that you can do is sow money into it.  When you do that, your heart will naturally wrap around that.  

Then Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon.  Question: Why use the word mammon?  In 1st century Hebraic culture, the Aramaic language was dirty.  When Jesus used the word "Mammon", that was a switch to Aramaic.  It was a literary tool to emphasize the fact of how bad it was.  Mammon was the worship of stuff.  It was where we live to accumulate stuff.  

The next thing He says is  "The Lamp of the body is the eye.  If our eye is full of good, then your body will be full of light.  If your eyes is bad, it will fill your body with darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"  Either Jesus was breaking form, or that statement was about money. 

Back then, if someone wanted to call you generous, they would say that you had an eye of light.  If you were being called greedy, then you had an evil eye.  To Jesus, generosity flows like the light of a lamp that will provide revelation for your whole being. Being greedy will fill you with darkness and it will ultimately consume you.  

We need two things for a harvest: fertile ground and seed.  God says that He provides seed to the sower, not to the hoarder.  So many times, we eat the part of our seed that was meant to sow, not to eat.  

Everything out of God is 3 dimensional.  We and God are 3 dimensional: spirit, soul, and body.  We are created in His image, therefore it only stands to reason that we would be very much like Him.  Giving is out of God, therefore, it has to be 3 dimensional.  We have always been taught only 2 dimensions of it, and those are tithes and offering.  From the 4th century, when Constantine started changing everything, we have only been taught those two.  The first of the 3 dimensions of giving is called the Terumah offering, or the giving of the first fruits.  Been taught that first fruits and tithe are the same thing?  We all have.  The first fruits and the tithe had to be separated before any one was even allowed to eat.  

First fruits was the first 1/40th of your increase goes to your pastor.  If you are panicking right now, that is NOT 40%.  It is actually 2.5%.  It's $25 out of $1,000.  It is the key to your whole life.

The next dimension of giving is tithe.  Question: Why is tithes plural in Malachi 3?  There is a distinct possibility that there could be 9 tithes.  There's not, there's 3, so calm down.  If you really want to confuse yourself, get a concordance and look up every instance of the word tithe.  The reason is that there are three Hebrew words that there is only 1 English word for and that's tithe.  One place it says bring a tithe of the increase into the House of the Lord.  Then another place it says to bring it and there you shall eat it.  Then whatever is left, put it up for your children's children.  Yet another place it says to bring the tithe and give it to the poor, widowed and alien.  

The first tithe was called Maser Rishon, the tithe to the Lord, the one that we always do.

The second tithe was Maser Shinei.  That was the tithe to themselves.  It sets people free to know that God is just as interested in them saving money as He is in giving to Him.  He doesn't need it, He just wants you to be blessed.  It is not just so that you can say that you are blessed, it is so that people will want what you have.  Four percent of the population of the United States is Jewish, yet they have 40% of the wealth.  With statistics like that, either people get really mad, or they want what you have and will do what it takes to get it.  Who is the most oppressed people the history of the world?  The JEWS!  Hitler tried to kill them all.  But they still have all the MONEY!  Imagine how much money you would have if you had saved 10% your whole life.  From like 30 years old to 65, you would be well into the millions. God is SMART!  That is with no pay raises and no multiplication because of Terumah.

The third tithe went to the poor.  Every 3rd Maser Shinei went to the poor orphaned and widowed.

Every time you plant a field, a certain percentage of a crop comes up first: that was the first fruit.  They had a belief that if the first fruit is holy, then the whole lump is holy.  The same for the first born, if the first born is holy, then the whole family is holy.  Romans 8:29 says that Jesus was to be the first born over many brothers.  The only thing that could make first fruits holy was for it to become Terumah.  This happened by lifting it high and putting it in the hand of the pastor.  He represented their spiritual authority.  If they ate their first fruits, it cursed everything.  Does this sound familiar?  Two people in a garden that eat off of a tree that they are directly commanded not to.  The forbidden tree in the garden was Terumah.  Similar situation with their two children.  Genesis 4:3-7  3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?
Anybody else taught that Cain's offering was rejected because it wasn't blood?  Blood wasn't required in sacrifice until the time of the Levitical Priesthood.  Before it was set up, Terumah was given to their father.  Ever heard that the father is the priest of the home?  Cain brought an offering but it was not the first fruits.  Abel's offering was and that's why it was reject and he got angry and jealous of Abel.  This thing is REALLY DEEP!  
Nehemiah 12:44 44 And at the same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered.  See how the three are separate?  
Nehemiah 10:35-36  35 And we made ordinances to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the Lord;36 to bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God;

The next few scriptures have the word that is wave offering, heave offering, tribute, etc; whatever is an English equivalent, Terumah has been put in it's place.  
Ex 25:2 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring a Terumah".
Numbers 31:41 41 So Moses gave the tribute which was the Lord’s Terumah to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Ezekiel 44:30 30 The best of all first fruits of any kind, and every Terumah of every kind of all your Terumath (plural for Terumah), shall be the priest’s; also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.  
This was tied to everything to everything that you touch.  This is your job, your kids, your work in spreading the Gospel, THIS IS YOU!!!
Ezekiel 48:10  10 To these—to the priests—the holy Terumah shall belong
Just for kicks, this one is just cool!
Proverbs 3:9-10  9 Honor the Lord with your possessions,
And with the first fruits of all your increase;
10 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And your vats will overflow with new wine.

Giving of the Terumah offering was tied to the very blessing on your house.  It tied you to revelation.

There is a name that you need to know if you're going to understand the New Testament.  That name is Hillel.  He was the "headmaster" at a rabbi school and there was even debate about whether or not he was the Messiah before Jesus came along.  Jesus was a student at Hillel's rabbi school.  Hillel had a teaching on Terumah directly from a Jewish history book that quoted him:  if someone honored Terumah at a 1/40th level then he is said to have an eye full of light.  If someone honored Terumah at a 1/50th level, he had a middling eye.  However, if he honors Terumah at a 1/60th level, he is said to have an evil eye.   Basically Jesus is saying that if you go with 1/40th, you will be given revelation to your whole being.  At 1/60th, your whole being is filled with darkness.  They had a word for those that didn't pay Terumah at all: INFIDEL.  Very serious stuff.  As the Jews moved from agricultural to vocational, they asked what would be acceptable to honor Terumah with their wages.  The answer from the rabbis was somewhere between 1/40th and 1/60th.  Then they said that 1/40th was generous and 1/60th was being greedy.  And wouldn't you agree that someone that would argue between those two is a stingy person?  

The Terumah offering was tied to the blessing on your house and the multiplication of your wealth, it sanctified EVERYTHING else because if the first fruit is holy, then the whole thing is holy.  

BIBLE NERD TIME!!!  This shows you how much farther this goes than money.  In Romans 8:23, it says that we have been given the first fruits of the Holy Spirit.  To Paul, (author of Romans) the first fruits was 1/40th.  Ever wondered why someone can be filled with the Holy Spirit and still struggle with sin and insecurity?  We've only been given an measure.  Paul also writes that in glory, we will be given the full measure of the presence of God.  

Watch this: the Holy Spirit has been fused to my Spirit.  And we've only been given the first fruits of Him.  Therefore if the first fruit is holy, the whole lump is holy.  That means that my whole being is holy.  

Deuteronomy 18:2-5 2 Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

3 “And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. 4 The first fruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever."  We are to honor Terumah even with the sale of family possessions.  Even if our pastor already has money from other places.

In Jewish wedding tradition, you had a covenant of salt.  Bride and groom each had a baggie of salt and would pour their salt each into a bag that was held by the priest.  Then the priest would say, "as hard as it is for each grain of salt to be separated again, let it be that difficult to tear these two apart.  Numbers 18 refers to giving of the Terumah offering as an everlasting covenant of salt. (Ref Mark 10:9)  It flavors your life with what is on your pastor's life.  There is a book called the didache.  It was written by the remaining apostles.  Chapter 13 is all about the Terumah.  It states that if you have a pastor that is willing to live among you, speak into your life, and teach you; then he is worthy of your Terumah.  If you do not have a pastor worthy of it, GIVE IT TO THE POOR!  

Remember that first fruits became Terumah two ways: lifted high and put it into the hands of the pastor.  

1 Corinthians 15:20 says that Christ was given as a first fruits offering. Jesus also said that (John 12:32) "If I be lifted high, I will draw all men unto myself." He spoke Hebrew  there fore he said, "If I become Terumah, I will draw all men to myself." Jesus was put on the cross, right?  He was a good ways off the ground.  Then He says this with His last breath, "Into your hands I commit my spirit."  His only spiritual authority was His Father.  He offered His life as a Terumah to His DAD!

You may agree with this and you may not.  This is what was shown to me and what has been proven to me by me applying these principles and watching the results.  Do not just go on what I say.  Go and search this all out for your self.  God bless you all!