Blessed Generation (First Edition): Unveiling Jesus In The Tithe. Kenny Mokoena

      This book is about the revelation of Jesus Christ and the grace of God. When you finish reading this book, you will know the truth about giving and you shall be set free. God wants His people to be free and to give to Him out of freedom and not out of bondage. Giving must be a delight, and if delight is missing, our giving cannot translate into worship. Delight is the secret ingredient that makes giving genuine. God is not looking for material things from us. He is looking for our hearts, the problem is that our hearts are too attached to things. This is the mother of all stress and anxiety. No one can truly worship God from a position of stress and anxiety.

      This book is not about getting anyone to give or to tithe; although, after you have read the book you will most likely begin to tithe and give freely, if you are not doing so already. It is impossible for the light to shine and darkness remains. If you are already a giver and you tithe at your local Church, your heart will be filled with great joy and fulfilment as you read this book. The main objective of this book is to give you an understanding of grace-based giving as revealed in the scriptures.

      The Old And New Testament

      The New Testament is not about what you must do, but about what has already been done. This is one of the main distinctions between the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament is about doing and the New Testament is about receiving. In the Old Testament, it did not matter whether you believed or not, the focus was on you doing what is written in the law. The problem with this is that the law was designed such that no one could perform it perfectly. It has been designed in such a way that, if you broke one law, you have broken all of them. The law is like playing a game where you have ten balls and you need to score all ten of them in order to win. If you score nine and miss one, you lose the game. The trick of the game is that it has been designed, intentionally, to prevent you from even scoring a single goal. I say this because when Jesus came, He lifted the bar so high that it is impossible to keep a single law perfectly.

      The law was designed to point us to Jesus, to reveal our weaknesses and make us realise our need for help. The law is like a mirror, it shows you what is wrong with you but does not fix you and make you right. Don’t get me wrong, the law is good and perfect and holy, but its function is not to make us good, perfect and holy. Its function is to reveal and release Jesus Christ.

      In 1 Samuel 17:49, David prevailed against Goliath with a stone. The sling was the picture of the law and the stone was the picture of grace. The anointing was not on the sling but on the stone. The sling without a stone is not useful and cannot kill a giant. It does not matter how much you swing the sling, without the stone it is useless. When we teach our members in our Churches the law (or principles) and not reveal Jesus or point the people to Him, we are giving them a sling to kill a giant without a stone. The sling is designed to release the stone and that stone is Jesus Christ. He is the stone that the builders rejected, yet He is the chief cornerstone (Matthew 21:42). Without the chief cornerstone, the building cannot stand.

      The New Testament requires faith apart from works for us to receive from God. You will find as you read further that I have referred a lot to the word “works” throughout the book. All references to the word “works” means obedience to the law or our attempts to earn God’s blessing through self-righteousness. In Deuteronomy 28:3-13, the bible records a number of blessings but those blessings were conditional because they could only be attained by the children of Israel, if they carefully observed all the commandments of God. In verse 15, the bible says that if they failed to carefully observe all God’s commandments and statutes, all the curses recorded in verse 16 to verse 68 would come upon them and overtake them. The obedience of the children of Israel to obtain the blessings is called “works”.

      The Law was never designed to bring the blessing but a curse. In actual fact, those who received the blessing in the Old Testament did not receive it because they kept the law perfectly, no one could keep the law perfectly, but they did because God is a good God. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not blessed through the covenant of the law but through the covenant of grace. God gave the law to show man that he cannot live on his own strength. The source of man’s life is God and God placed the life of man in His Son, Jesus Christ.

      The Days Of Toiling Are Over

      This book is a call upon you to cease from your labour. Your only labour must be to study and meditate on the word of God, in order to build your faith. It is the faith that is in you that activates the blessed lifestyle. The bible says that those who are of faith are blessed (Galatians 3:9). For you to walk in the fullness of the grace of God, you must walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). Faith activates the Holy Spirit, while the Law activates the flesh.

      You must strive to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:3). Jesus is the end of our toiling (Matthew 11:28). While we worry about our needs, the harvest is crying out for harvesters. I encourage you to take your eyes from yourself and look to Jesus, He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). It is time for us to seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. We must set our minds on things above, not on things on earth (Colossians 3:1-2). Many Believers who are toiling are constantly run down by satan because they have their eyes and minds on the wrong things. If you look below and not above, what you will see is discouragement and disasters everywhere. Below, you will see facts, but above, you will see truth. Below, you will see poverty, sickness and death. Above, you will see prosperity, perfect health and eternal life. This is the message that the nations of the world need to hear today. It’s time to look up, because our salvation and the redemption of our bodies is at hand.

      All is set. Get ready. Jesus is coming. You are a Blessed Generation. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen!