Dismantling Ananias’ Error

I have written elsewhere that I believe Ananias really didn’t have to die.

He died because the spiritual leadership did not have the capacity to handle his gift.

That is why they asked him to translate it into the money they could easily manage.

But money has a mind of its own. And it also has a voice.

It therefore started speaking to Ananias about the need to take just a little, probably to handle a small emergency elsewhere.

The result was that someone who had been able to wholeheartedly give a property was unable to give the proceeds of the same, simply because money operates on a completely different spiritual realm, a reality very few of us know or appreciate.

Anybody can comfortably give out of what they have without much struggle.

Someone who keeps cows will not have a problem giving a cow out of the ones he has. Yet he will have a major problem giving 10% of the money he receives from the same cow he was willing to give after selling it. He can comfortably give a litre of milk a day to a neighbour or friend but will find it extremely difficult to give a fraction after its sale in cash.

Someone with an orchard will have no issues giving a sack of fruits from it. But get him when he is coming from the market and he will struggle to give you a small portion of the sale of the same sack of fruits he would have freely given you.

I am sure that even a car dealer will not have a problem giving out a car but will struggle giving money. And it is the same with a land dealer, amongst other wealth producers.

The only people who have no problem giving out money are the corrupt and those who handle easy money; drug dealers, thieves, money launderers etc.

That because it costs them pretty little, if anything, to access that money. Like they say, easy come, easy go.

But someone completely surrendered to God will also have a healthy relationship with money; meaning that he will not have issues following God’s orders concerning the same. The voice of money will be stilled by God’s voice.

I have gone to those pricey hotels and restaurants for this or the other meeting.

Interestingly, if you are known to the management, they will have no qualms feeding you with food costing a few months’ rent.

As an aside, allow me to tickle you on this.

There was this time we were pursuing a ministry in one such hotel and the management was very receptive to the same.

As happens in such instances, the management would offer us a cup of tea and cake every time we would have our meetings that did not even include them.

My partner and friend decided to involve his denomination by inviting a reverend and a few other members.

After a few meetings, the reverend felt inspired and offered to buy the refreshment for our next meeting without caring to understand how we always enjoyed refreshment or the cost.

My friend, who was the connection to the management obliged and asked for the bill for the four of us.

The reverend started sweating after receiving the bill. He couldn’t imagine that tea could cost that much. And he had no capacity of meeting that bill.

My friend had to request that it be treated as at other times. Or he had probably foreseen the drama before it unfolded.

The point I am trying to make is that we are disenfranchising givers when we limit their giving to money.

They might not die like Ananias but they will lose the blessing that is the product of wholehearted giving.

But we would rather they lose that blessing because we are not willing or ready to handle the giving of God’s people. We would rather they lose that blessing because we feel it is beneath our status to dirty our hands managing that giving. We would rather they lose that blessing because we are not ready to be accountable for the way we will handle that giving.

You see, I can very easily move money from here to there without much effort and without anybody noticing. I will just need a receipt to justify any expenditure without any other verification, especially in a church setting. I can inflate prices of what needs to be procured.

But imagine trying to do that with cows and goats! Imagine doing that with milk and vegetables! Imagine doing it with the Nazirite! Imagine doing that with lands and houses!

And the same thing applies to the professional beggar.

I have been able to keep them off by agreeing with them.

I offer to take the one who is hungry to a restaurant and he flees. Taking someone to a stage and offering to pay fare to their destination and telling the conductor not to refund a coin does the same thing.

In short, proper giving is giving in kind.

Many people argue that we need money to eat and I always disagree.

We eat food and not money. And I pray for food, not money to buy food, and receive.

Like now I have just received a whole bunch of bananas!

We do not need money to travel. We need an available means. And I have over the years travelled distant places without a coin.

We limit God when we restrict His provision to money.

Anyway, we were talking about giving, though I think that aside is also useful.

We should therefore allow people to give what they deal with.

That way, we will very easily exclude defiled money from our coffers even as we will keep shady occupations and businesses from our membership.

You can’t imagine a harlot giving in kind. Nor would a drug dealer.

Even the corrupt will shun the altar because there would be nowhere to hide.

As things now stand, it is the corrupt and wicked who run churches because they have the financial muscle to push the godly out.

Let us look at probably the most misused verse in the Bible

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)

Have you noticed that great omission, storehouse and food?

There is a world of difference between a bank account and a storehouse as there is between food and cash. And that difference is what is making Ananias’ error thrive in our generation.

We should revert to what God meant when he talked about ministry and ministry support.

Just as you do not have to have money to minister, you do not need money to minister.

But you can’t do without food unless you are Moses. And even then, it was for the eighty days he was on the mount in God’s presence.

I believe even the most demanding of the constraints in a minister’s support can also be solved the same way.

What makes you think that a minister with an educational institution will not offer free tuition to some students as his ministry support? And what will make it so hard to offer a few of those chances to ministers’ children?

And it is the same with all other aspects of ministry.

I have had my rent reduced two times by two different landlords, and that in the city. And I had not even made any request. In one I even had rent arrears.

I do not dictate how God supports me. I do not look at money as the medium of support.

As a result of that reality, I am able to appreciate support in very many ways.

But due to that I am also not constrained in the way I minister.

I know the power of presence and so will visit even without a coin to be able to meet a need.

I offer technical assistance as my ministry, as a result saving people immense amounts of money, money they may not have.

I offer my expertise and experience in many fields as my ministry.

In short, I offer what God has given me in kind, the way God intended it.

It would be impossible to evaluate giving in kind because it is coming from the heart. It is giving responding to God’s prompting.

People wonder at Jesus’ saying that the two mites the widow gave was more that the whole giving of all the others.

She gave all she had while the rest gave money.

In short, she gave her livelihood while the rest gave a portion of what they had.

It is akin the Zarephath widow who prepared food for Elijah with the last flour and oil she had, the only food she had between her and her son and death.

And we still wonder why God overlooked all the widows (and families in Israel) when looking for somewhere for His prophet to hide!

Giving in kind requires a relationship with God. And it gives the greatest witness of our faith because it is the clearest demonstration of our detachment from things.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to know the amount of sacrifice and detachment from things when using money because it is impossible to know what remains after giving it.

Only God can tell the level of our sacrifice using money like we see with Jesus at the offering basket in the temple.

And humanly speaking, it is only normal to appreciate the thicker envelope than the sacrificial penny since it can take us farther. Remember Solomon stating that money is the answer to everything!

Giving in kind will many times accurately assess the commitment of the giver to the cause of Christ.

A peasant who gives a chicken from his three to support a church program will gain respect instead of spite than the millionaire who gives ten thousand.

I think an example is important at this point.

I rarely give any notice for pastoral visits, the simple reason being that giving it will place demands on the person being visited. This is even more important where the ministry is to the people Jesus’ anointing was focused on, the materially challenged or poor if you insist that I use that word though I have some portent definitions for the same.

Many will go to great lengths to entertain a minister. Some could even slaughter their only chicken. Others will get into debt. And pastors still argue that they are not privileged!

Well, I visited such a family and the mother was preparing a meal in their single room with the children eagerly surrounding her.

You could, from looking at the children, know that the children were hungry and probably had not eaten for some time.

It was also evident that the meal would be the only meal for the day.

After preparing the meal, she served me first, a sizeable serving, meaning that the children would barely have anything to eat.

Of course I couldn’t eat that food. But I couldn’t reject that honour.

I therefore took a bite and ‘became’ full immediately.

Would you compare that offering with a buffet in a five-star hotel?

It reminds me of David pouring the water his famous three had fetched by going through a Philistine garrison.

Or this other time a family with small children were leaving their small hut for me to spend the night to go and look for accommodation in similar small huts in the village.

The saving grace was in the fact that the place was very warm and so I said it would be impossible to sleep in a house in all that heat. I therefore comfortably spent the night in the open in the company of my host. But at least this time I had been invited.

That sacrifice is way higher than someone paying for a room for me in a five-star hotel.

But I couldn’t have appreciated it had there been lodgings and they had borrowed to pay for a room for me.

Incidentally, that is why for all my missions I prefer staying with a hosting family than staying in hotels and lodges. It makes it very easy to appreciate the giving as well as become a relevant guest/ minister.

But few ministers want to bend that low in their ministry.

Some even openly confess that doing that weakens their anointing. You wonder what kind of anointing since Christ’s anointing allowed Him to touch the completely untouchable, lepers, without being defiled.

Can we be more anointed than the Source of our anointing? Again, unless our source is not Christ?

What I am saying is that giving in kind is the giving God through His word advocates.

Changing our expectation to other giving therefore emasculates true giving by introducing other dynamics and temptations to it.

It is difficult to divert giving in kind.

You see, If I am taking a thousand to church and meet a need requiring a hundred, it is very easy to be moved by the plea and reduce the gift. But I can’t do that when I am driving a cow, or sack of produce, or car. And even if I will do so, it will be doing the ministry the gift would have done anyway.

Temptations like Ananias’ will vanish when we agree with the scriptures and encourage giving in kind.

I know this is a monumental challenge.

But think about it. Then pray about it.

But what about those who earn money? What about those medium of trade/occupation is money?

That is their kind.

It would be as disastrous for them to buy cows to give as offerings. Yet we do not think so when people sell cows and lands to take money as offering.