It is quite possible to tithe and at the same time oppress the poor and needy. Jesus thundered against the Pharisees, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matt 23:23). Mint, dill, and cumin were herbs of the kitchen garden, and hence any tithe on them would be infinitesimally small. How tragic to be meticulously trivial in the tithe and blind to justice and mercy and faith.

From Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster

He said He inhabits the praises of His people. In the Global Prayer Room they worship and intercede for Jesus’ end-times purposes all of the time. It never stops. They rotate full bands on two hour shifts all day and all night. They’ve been doing it for years.

The result is that His manifest presence is here continually. There is never a time when the Holy Spirit isn’t here. Download the media from the recent onething conference. Come to the onething conference next year at any cost. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

It’s the way You light just the path ahead
Not too far but enough to see
It’s the way You speak so clearly, deeply
Not loud but gentle calling

Lord let us hear Your quiet voice
We’ll sing the words you give
Your will done in us

Oh, let Your kingdom come on earth
It’s what we need to see
Your will done in us

Arise, shine our Light has come
My King, My King
My King and His Kingdom are One

When you choose to be a judger instead of a redeemer; when you choose to be a critic rather than an intercessor, something is released in your life. And he [Paul] says this, “you better be careful when someone else does wrong and you become a critic and you don’t deal with them in gentleness and in humility you’re liable to end up right where they are.” You say, “Oh never me.” Let me tell you something.

Why in the world are we surprised when an Assemblies of God preacher goes on Nightline with Ted Copple and says, “Jim Baker was a cancer in the Body of Christ that needed to be excised and cut out and the Church will be far better without him.” – why in the world are we surprised when the man that said that a few weeks later is shown in pictures with a prostitute?

You say it was his fault. Well of course it was his fault. But loved ones, don’t you understand that when you choose to walk that path you unleash something. You partner with something. And Isaiah said, “If you could learn to just not do this [points his finger]“. Isaiah said, “If you can just learn to keep your judgment to yourself.” He said, “Then all that God has for you begins to break forth.” The glory of the Lord settles on you. His righteousness settles on you. His peace settles on you. But it’ll never happen as long as you’re doing this [points his finger].

Now he says, “I want you to not judge and I want to you choose intercession because it’s for your own protection.”

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking there is such a thing as righteous judgment. But it’s more rare than gold. All through my life I’ve heard people say, “Well, I am angry but it’s just righteous indignation.” Not it’s not. It’s not righteous indignation. You’re just mean! [crowd laughs a lot]

And you’re mad. And you don’t like what somebody did and you find some verse to tack on to it. And you just say, “Well, I’m just like Jesus in the temple. I’m just throwing tables over. But it’s righteous indignation.”

No it’s not. There’s bitterness; there’s anger. I can show you on one had and have about three fingers left over the number of times in my life that I have ever felt like I saw true righteous indignation. The anger that we hide behind and call righteous indignation is nothing more than taking on that old mantle [of accusation] and calling it “standing up for what’s right”. Standing up for righteousness. Guys I want to tell you something; we’re not mature enough to walk in that righteous anger. And we don’t know how to walk in it at all.

What we need to understand is that true judgment needs to occur. Paul says, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church. Are you not to judge those on the inside?” In other words, he says there’s judgment that’s got to take place in the Church. The pastors and leaders in the church, we have to make judgments all the time. But I’ll tell you what we know: we know that we better make it with mercy. We better know that we have love.

Let me put it to you this way: you don’t have the right – and you and I don’t have the maturity to make a judgment call unless we love the people we’re having to judge more that we love ourselves. “Well … I like them, but I don’t know if I love them”.

Let me put it to you this way: John said, “anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

You see loved ones, when Jesus comes to me and says, “Steven I need you to stop doing this. This attitude is not right. This deed that you did is not right. The position you’ve taken on this is not right.” Loved ones it’s easy for me most of the time to embrace the Lord’s correction because He loves me enough to die for me.

See if I go to Robert Johnson and say, “You know you ought not to be doing this Robert. I love you. You’re like a brother to me. Your like family to me Robert. Robert I’d take a bullet for you, but you’ve got to stop this.” It might take Robert a day or two but Robert’s going to say “yes sir I can do that” [Robert says amen]. “I can walk away from it pastor. Even though you hurt me with the correction I know that you love me.”

We’ve got a lot of folks who say, “Well I just have this gift of discernment. I get in the Body and I see stuff that ought not be, and I’m going to obey God. I’m going to set it right.”

Loved ones let me say to you categorically; you don’t have a gift of the Holy Spirit. You have a gift of a spirit but it’s not the Holy Spirit. There are no ‘white blood cells ‘ in the Body of Christ. There are no ministries that attack other ministries and call it maintaining the truth of the Gospel.

You go on the Internet; you go on these “watchdog” websites. I’ve never found one that wasn’t motivated by hate. I’ve never found one that wasn’t motivated by jealously. I’ve never found one that wasn’t harsh and judgmental. You say “well you’re being judgmental”. No this is righteous indignation [crowd laughs a lot].

No I’m mad! I’m mad and I’m trying to tell you something loved ones; unless you love to the point of death you have nothing to say! [Amens]

See, I have the right to correct my children because I love my children more than I love myself. So I have a right, and I have a responsibility to speak to my kids and say, “Guys, gals you can’t do this. And you’re not going to do this because I am your father and I love you.” But I want to tell you something; if a neighbor came in and decided he was going to discipline my kids he’s gonna walk away with a pop-knot big enough for its own zip code [crowd laughs].

You say ‘but what if he’s right’? Right does not mean you’re right. You only have grounds to correct when you love enough to give your life. That’s what the bible says. Like Jesus we ought to lay down our lives.

A few years ago a man came to preach, most of you weren’t here, and in the second service – I don’t know what happened between the first and second services. Maybe he had an argument with his wife. I don’t know what happened. But he just lit into this congregation about children crying in the service and about kids getting up and going to the bathroom instead of just sitting there and he just went on and on and on.

He was supposed to preach that night, and I said to him “Brother do not do this again in the next service. I’ve never done this in my life but if you jump my people again, I’m gonna stand up; the service is over and you’re going home.”

He started telling me about righteousness and the way kids ought to behave. I said “You don’t love these people. I love them. If they need correcting I’ll correct them. You don’t love them; you don’t know them. You’ve never shed a tear over any of those little toddlers that went out to the bathroom.” I said, “I’m not going to allow a hireling to come in and try to act spiritual when he doesn’t love the flock.” He says “Oh, I love the flock.” I said, “Baloney!” [crowd laughs]. I didn’t say baloney I said ‘bull’ but I wish I hadn’t said it [more laughter]. I wish I’d said baloney.

I said, “You’re preaching at this church; you called me. You said ‘I got canceled’. You were in the area and you begged me to have you because you said ‘I can’t afford a Sunday without an offering’. We did you a favor. You didn’t come in here with the heart of a father. You didn’t come in here with the heart of an apostle.” I said, “You leave my flock alone.” And he did.

I want to tell you something; that’s the way Christians act all the time. The enemy wants you to take on a mantle where you see something that’s not right – and you think that just because you see sin, and you’ve discerned it properly – you think “I have a right to judge it” but we don’t! We don’t.

God help the pastor that criticizes another denomination. That’s not his flock. It’s not his children. I have nothing to say about any other church in Columbia because they’re not my family. But loved ones I want to tell you if I ever open my mouth like I’m doing today; if I ever expose something evil like I’m doing today – you mark it down it’s because I’ve been before God, I’ve paid the price, and I love you more than I love my own flesh.

What we’ve got to understand is that when you judge, you’ve got to have that mercy. If anyone says “I love God” yet hates his brother he’s a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 1 Peter 4:8 “Above all love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins.”

- Pastor Steven Chitty, From the Sermon What’s Happening Around God’s Throne at Christian Life, 4/6/2008

Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia].

Speaking about Jesus, John the Baptist says, “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12).

Elsewhere (Matt 25) Jesus talks about fire in the context of final judgment. As far as I know, this unfortunately rules out universalism – the idea that everyone will be saved. But remember this: only Jesus – not us – gets to decide who to save. Only He, the Eternal Word of God, is ‘able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Heb 4:12). He is not a set of doctrines. He is a man and the Living God.

When John applies this symbolism to judgment at the hands of Jesus, it’s not just final judgment. Jesus will judge His own house first (1 Peter 4:17) and His judgment is not condemnation; it’s mercy. We must submit ourselves to His judgments if we want to get His mercy.

We will all find ourselves on Jesus’ threshing floor. David went to build an altar on Ornan’s threshing floor. Jesus wants to build an altar on your threshing floor. We all have one. It’s the place where we stand and judge.

As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground.
- 1 Chronicles 21:21

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me a sinner. Break the pointing finger. Take over my seat of judgment. I am unjust and unwise. You are perfect Justice and Wisdom. Take the threshing floor of my heart and build an altar for Your glory. ‘Take it for Yourself; and let my Lord the King do what is good in His sight. See, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all’ (v23).

We have to surrender the tools we use to judge. We must offer our doctrines and our reasons to Jesus on the altar that He alone can build. We must be willing to see our opinions and reputations go up in flames if we can thereby give Him glory. He is all that matters.

“Then David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the Lord and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering” (v26).

This fire indicates divine approval for David’s sacrifice, and it also indicates that this altar will replace the altar at the tabernacle, which received similar divine approval when sacrifice was first offered at it (Lev 9:24). Fire from heaven also kindled the first sacrifice in Solomon’s Temple (2 Chron 7:1).
- From The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible

Then David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel” (22:1).

Ornan’s threshing floor was the very sight the Lord chose for His temple, which Solomon would build. Solomon’s Temple is a prophetic foreshadowing of the Church, the Bride and Body of Christ. We ‘as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 2:5).

We must leave the place of judgment behind and prostrate ourselves before Jesus with our faces to the ground.