Contributor: Leye Olayiwola

Introduction: The idea that God will reward our giving by paying a one-hundred-to-one return on what we give to His work has become a very popular concept. It is almost commonplace to hear ministers refer to it at offering time, urging people to "give generously and believe God for a hundredfold blessing." What really did Jesus Christ mean when he mentioned “hundred time as much” in the scriptures? Does the hundred fold return (literally and mathematically) work for everyone who gave money offerings and tithes? Is it even possible? We will consider these and many more in our study today.

1. THE HUNDRED FOLD RETURN

“Peter started saying to Him, “Look, we have given up everything and followed You [becoming Your disciples and accepting You as Teacher and Lord].” Jesus said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, there is no one who has given up a house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake,  who will not receive a hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms—along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.” [Mark 10:28-30 AMP]

• Notice that there is nothing said in this passage about tithes or offerings. The context refers to people who have made an absolute commitment to follow the call of God upon their lives, leaving their former possessions, families, and lifestyles behind. See also Luke 18:28-30
• Jesus responded to Peter by saying, "Every man who sacrifices his all for My sake, and the Gospel's, shall receive a hundredfold in this life of houses, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, wives, children, lands, and persecutions".
• What did Jesus mean when He said they would receive a hundredfold of houses and family? Wiser men than me who have spent lifetimes studying the Scriptures and the life and times of Jesus have given their interpretation. To these itinerant evangelists who would become missionaries to the world, traveling alone with little more than the clothes on their backs, He promised that houses in strange lands would open their doors to them—a hundred, if need be. He promised that as they preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and won souls to Christ, they would enjoy fellowship with countless brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers—a multiplied family of faith.
• Is the hundredfold return available for us today? Yes, of course, it's available for all who have left everything to commit their all for the sake of Christ and the Gospel!
• Does the hundredfold return mean that when we give an offering, we should get out a calculator and compute the monetary payback we expect to receive at the rate of one hundred to one? In other words, if we give a dollar to God's work, are we promised that He will give us a hundred dollars back?
• Let's consider a hypothetical example of what would happen if an individual actually had this happen just seven times in his life. Since the purpose of prosperity is to provide believers with the resources to do God's work, we'll assume that once this individual began his giving with a dollar and received his multiplied return, he "reinvested" the total amount back into the Kingdom of God by giving again. Here's how that scenario would play out with the hundredfold return working a mere seven times: $1 x hundredfold return reinvested seven times over will yield  $100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion dollars!)
• At the time of this writing( THE MIDAS TOUCH), the man with the most financial wealth in the world is considered to be Bill Gates of Microsoft; his net worth is estimated to be as much as $85 billion. So a person for whom the hundredfold return worked as described above would have 1,176 times more money than Bill Gates!
• Perhaps you know of a Christian who has been very generous in his giving and has strong faith in God's ability and willingness to give prosperity to His children. Let's say that over the years this person accumulates a net worth of ten million dollars. Most people would agree that this individual is quite wealthy—that financial prosperity is a reality to him.
• However, this wealthy Christian's ten million dollars is a microscopic fraction of what could be realized on the hundredfold return on an initial dollar offering reinvested seven times as described above. In fact, that ten million dollars would have to be multiplied ten million times to equal the hundred trillion dollars hypothetically received by the individual who had his single dollar returned a hundredfold just seven times over.
• Consider also that almost any Christian who is faithful in tithes and offerings would not have begun with a single dollar, but hundreds of dollars! If the hundredfold return worked literally and mathematically for everyone who gave money in an offering, we would have Christians walking around with not billions or trillions of dollars, but quadrillions of dollars!

2. INTERPRETE THE WORD OF GOD CORRECTLY

“Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.” [2 Timothy 2:15]

• Overemphasizing or adding to what the Bible actually teaches invariably does more harm than good. Over the years, many believers have leaped to false and totally unrealistic conclusions regarding teachings such as the hundredfold return. Feeling that they have been promised remarkable, extraordinary, and phenomenal returns, some have ended up disappointed and disillusioned when the result didn't materialize as they envisioned.
• Going back to the original question—should a believer expect a monetary payback at the rate of one hundred to one when he pays his tithes or gives an offering? Absolutely not! Then why do some preachers teach that? Well, ministers are just human, like everyone else. Sometimes they make mistakes. Every now and then, an idea or concept comes along that sounds really exciting; people are really taken with it and eager to respond to it. It's easy to just jump on the bandwagon and go along with the crowd without taking the time to search out the Scriptures and examine the idea in detail.

“Other seed fell on good soil and yielded grain, some a hundred times as much [as was sown], some sixty [times as much], and some thirty. He who has ears [to hear], let him hear and heed My words.”

[Matthew 13:8-9]

• The parable above was not talking about money. The seed is the Word. The stony and thorn-infested ground has no return at all—some who hear the Word do not respond. But even in good ground, the amount of return differs. Some Christians don't grow and develop much—maybe thirtyfold. Others may develop more. And some become great, devout, faith-filled, productive Christians—the hundredfold folks. In other words, they receive the maximum benefit from the Word of God they have heard.
• And the other commonly used hundredfold passage that we looked at earlier isn't about giving money, either. Mark 10:28 through 30 is talking about Christian service. Jesus wasn't talking about multiplying tithes and offerings.
• It is quite possible that there may be some individuals who have given a certain amount and received a multiplied return on it, perhaps even a hundredfold—but not on every dollar they have ever given to the Lord!

“If your tithes and offerings last year were $5,000, did you receive a hundredfold return of a half million dollars? If you gave a total of $20,000, did you receive $2,000,000? Do you expect to? I think you get the point. I did, too, and that's why I no longer tell people to expect the hundredfold return on their offerings. I just stay with what the Word of God says: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over ..." (Luke 6:38). I always claim the "running over" blessing.” – Kenneth E. Hagin

• Conclusion:

Please understand we are not trying to be cynical, nor are we trying to take away anyone's faith concerning God meeting his or her needs. But we believe it is important that we be realistic and sound in what we teach. We must "rightly divide" the Word of God and carefully seek the truth in interpreting the Scriptures.

Part of this teaching was taken from “THE MIDAS TOUCH” by Kenneth E. Hagin