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Unless marked, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version. (KJV) Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Emphasis within Scripture quotations is the author’s own. Please note that New Spectrum Media Concepts’ style capitalizes all pronouns in Scripture that refer to God. The name satan and related references are not capitalized intentionally.

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The Cup, The Cake and The Coin:

Keys to Honoring Spiritual Leadership

ISBN 13: 978-0-9851176-1-0

Published by New Spectrum Media Concepts

15814 Champions Forest #75

Spring, TX 77379

www.newspectrummedia.com

Dedication & Acknowledgements

I have often said, we are the sum total of what others have deposited into our lives that we choose to accept. Through the course of my 50 years in ministry, as I reflect on the impact the many spiritual leaders that God has brought into my life, I am amazed at the diversity of the men and women of God from whom I have gleaned. I am eternally grateful for the deposits each of them made in my life and to list everyone of them would be a book in itself.

I do, however, want to acknowledge a few of them; and, even though some of them have been received in Heaven, the impact and their deposit in my life was not in vain. My natural father Theodore Hilliard told me some thing years ago that made an impression on my life that I carry to this day. My dad said to me, “There will be many people that will come into your life so do not waste their time.”

From each one of these great men of God I have received and applied different aspects of their investment in my life. Publicly and privately, I have told them how much I appreciate their investment.

I received my call to preach the gospel at the age of 9 years old and my Mother took me to our Pastor, Rev. N. T. Burks. Week after week, he made an investment in my life by teaching me to value the art of studying the Word of God. It was his sage wisdom that I needed. He offered my mother wisdom to allow me to grow up as a normal boy and not treat me any differently because I was called to preach. Today, his voice of wisdom still guides me in my study and the preparation of my messages.

Later in my teenage life, my Mother took me to Rev. O. C. Johnson, who served as the Pastor of the Lyons Unity Missionary Baptist Church for over 35 years. It is through his life that I saw humility and learned many of the principles I share in this book. I came to know Rev. C. L. Jackson at one of the most crucial times in my ministry. Much like the people that were rope holders for the Apostle Paul, Rev C. L. Jackson held the rope for me and taught me the boldness to obey God regardless of opposition.

Through the years of obeying God and carrying out my pastoral assignment, I was connected with Rev. A.L. Patterson who I acknowledge as the one who has mastered the art of homiletics and alliteration. His example has given me ‘joy for my journey’ as a teacher.

Years ago, I was impacted by the life of Rev. E. V. Hill. During his life, I was allowed to work for him through a soul-winning outreach program he started. I was impacted by his administrative skills and the power of delegation. He was involved in many spheres of church, community and business yet he was able to do them all with ease because he was a prolific delegator. Apostle Frederick K. C. Price transformed my life and ministry with his discipline to live by faith. Through his example and teaching, I came to understand how to effectively communicate the faith message.

A few years ago, God said that He would “give me sons and daughters like unto myself.” I have seen this manifest in an overwhelming manner as they have set a new standard of generosity in the Body of Christ by serving, praying and sowing into Pastor Bridget’s and my life. I dedicate this book to all of them.

I thank God that I learned years ago, that when your heart is right towards God and your desire is to please Him then He is obligated to bring you into the company of the people you need to know and the knowledge of the things you need to know that are critical for your success and destiny in life. I can honestly say that God has definitely caused me to be brought into the company of many great men and women of God so whether their name is listed above or not, I acknowledge their impact on my life and I honor them for all that they did for me and others in the kingdom of God.

Table Of Contents

Dedication & Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Controversial Concern - The Resistance

The Conscious Choice - The Revelation

The Criteria Component - The Recognition

The Character Correction - The Renegades

The Corporate Commitment - The Responsibility

The Compassionate Choice - The Restoration

Epilogue

Introduction

WHY WRITE THIS BOOK

You have in your hands a book, which I believe God has mandated that I write! There is a Biblical truth that has been overlooked or not taught with conviction; and thus, today, there is a generation who has not tapped into the supernatural provisions of God. This principle is one that I learned and embraced over four decades ago. My wife and I are living examples that this Biblical practice works. Whenever I am asked about church management or leadership, before too long, the discussion turns to the compensation of spiritual leaders. The Spirit of God has assigned me to document this revelation and make it available to all those seeking to please God by honoring Spiritual Leadership. The Spirit of God would not have me write this book without already having prepared the hearts of millions to receive this revelation and immediately put it into practice. Let me start by giving you my story!

In the early 70’s, I made an unwise decision that derailed my pathway to success. Having finished high school in the upper part of my class, I was on the track to become a Chemical Engineer. As is usually the case with high performing students, offers came pouring in. I was sought out by Shell Oil Company and placed in their engineer development program, which guaranteed me a job as a Chemical Engineer upon completion of the Bachelor’s of Science program at the University of Texas. I was on my way!! I was enrolled in school and could see nothing but bright skies and sunny days ahead. Then, I thought I was in love! I fell hard and no longer was school or the internship on my mind. I wanted to be married. As a result, I forfeited the four-year scholarship to the University of Texas and the work-study program with Shell Oil Company.

It was a tragic move that everyone in my life tried to talk me out of, except, of course, my fiancé. Obviously, I did not value the opportunity that I had been so fortunate to receive. These were the early 70’s and during that time, opportunities for young black men were very limited. I was in an advantaged place and didn’t value it. I vividly recall my father pleading with me to stay in college while attempting to persuade me that marriage could wait. Unfortunately, the impetuousness of youth took over, and I rejected every effort he made to dissuade me.

I withdrew from school and started a family. I had saved some money from the work-study program that I redirected to setting up house, but it didn’t go far at all. Reality set in and I knew I needed to secure real work. Well, reality set in as I could only find a job paying a little above minimum wage in a hardware supply company. It was then when I realized that I had blown it! The little salary that I was making was nothing like the excessive pay I was getting from the work-study program. You see, Shell Oil’s work-study compensation plan was designed to afford the students the opportunity to purchase clothing for school, books, and even pay tuition. This was like a full scholarship with the provision that I had to work for the company over the summer months. Mistakenly, I thought that since it was what I was worth to Shell, another company would see my value as well. I made a serious miscalculation.

As I settled into this new life of lack and struggle, I was very depressed. I was married with a child on the way and working in a dead end job making a little above minimum wage. Needless to say, there were no fringe benefits and I owed every cent of my paycheck before payday arrived. Things were so bad financially that I could not even meet the job safety requirement of owning steel-toe boots. Against policy, I purchased the imitation steel-toe boots, which had extra layers of leather where the steel should have been. Times were bad and the outlook was even worse. Life was hard and payday was depressing.

I could not see any way out; I was in a hopeless situation, barely making it from week to week. Housing for my little family and me was even more depressing. I could only afford an apartment that was just above the government subsidized housing. In fact, the complex, where I lived, had served as the overflow for the government housing project. When tenants were waiting for permanent housing in the projects, they were placed in this apartment complex until their apartments were ready. So, this was a transient, bug-infested place that I was ashamed of, but I couldn’t do any better. If ever there were a hog pen experience like the prodigal son experienced, this was it! I say so often, now in retrospect, what you will not learn from the wisdom of others, the hog pen will make crystal clear. To me, it was clear that I had blown it; I had made a serious mistake in judgment and had derailed my life and future.

I was on the brink of serious depression. The only relief I had was on Sunday while attending the Baptist Church where I grew up. It was there when I enjoyed a time of spiritual refreshing. I was an associate minister at the church and my Pastor really loved me. He saw the condition I had gotten myself in and from time to time he would allow me to preach; and, my how I looked forward to those times. Not just for the small honorarium that was given, but it gave me a chance to do what I loved to do, which is to preach the Gospel. I had accepted the call to preach as a nine-year old child, after I received a visitation from an angel. I preached my first sermon at ten years old, and by the time, all of this drama was happening in my life, I had been preaching several years.

Everyone around me knew of my plight and felt sorry for me but to no avail. Most of those I knew could not help me because they were barely surviving too. I prayed and asked God to help me, but I did not know how the help would come. I thought about going back to school but on my salary that was out of the question. Life was hard and getting harder! Money was tight and getting tighter! There seemed to be no way out of the rut that I had acquired.

Even as I write about it today, I can identify with the sense of hopelessness and helplessness I experienced during those times. I understand why people in seemingly hopeless states are driven to crime, drugs, abandonment, and even suicide. I know what it feels like to see a dream become a nightmare from which you seemingly cannot awaken. I know what it feels like to think about ending it all because you had so much promise and you just blew it. I know what it feels like to carry the shame of a foolish mistake, have people look at you, and quickly look away in disgust and shame.

Well, it’s a long way from those days to where I am today. Thank God, that He will not leave us in our bleak situations even when they are of our own making.

My breakthrough came when a man approached me, one day, and said, “Ira, the Bible says that God will bless you if you will tithe.” Then, and I still can’t believe this, the next words he spoke were, “But, now I’m not a tither.” Can you believe that? He was telling me about doing something that he was not doing himself. I was neither offended nor was I going to discount what he said. Ever since I gave my life to Christ, I have always sought to be sensitive to obey truth no matter where it came from. His words were like music to my ears. For the first time, someone told me something that I could do now to get God to help me in my situation.

Tithing! From time to time, I had heard about it by the preacher in church, but I had never studied it or fully understood all of its ramifications. Once this fellow told me about it, I could not shake it. I knew that tithing was giving a tenth of what I earned to God, and though my money was tighter than tight, I could not get this out of my mind. I know now, that it was the Holy Spirit tugging on me to position me into God’s plan for my life.

That day, when I came home, I picked up my Bible and went through it while searching the Scriptural passages about tithing and giving offerings. After that evening of study, I was convinced that it was the plan of God for His covenant people to honor Him by giving tithes and offerings. I was persuaded of God’s promise that He would get involved in their lives to bless them with favor and increase. I will cover the specific passages that I read back then, which thoroughly convicted and convinced me that my situation would change if I would become a giver of tithes and offerings.

Although my study was targeted at the tithe, I clearly saw that the famous third chapter of Malachi spoke of tithes and offerings. It did shake me a bit when I read that not only was God expecting me to give Him a tenth of what I earned as an act of obedience and honor, but He also required an offering. The part about the offering had interested me because I wanted to know what amount of offering would please God. I could see that the tithe was based on a percentage, but the offering was a different matter altogether. God left the amount of the offering up to the giver, and I saw that there were different types of blessings attached to different types of offerings.

It was during this time of study that I discovered the giving of my offering to honor Spiritual Leadership. I had never heard this before; it was right there in the Bible; and I had read this, but never saw it in this light. It was clear what God required, and would reward those who would give offerings to their Spiritual Leadership; in my case, it was my Pastor. At first, it was almost more than I could bear, because you see, I was only earning $65.00 per week before taxes at the warehouse job. I was already stretched thinner than thin, yet I could see that I owed God the tenth. Otherwise, I would be considered a God-robber and would continue to live under the curse. No person wants to live under a curse that is representative of God’s disapproval.

This newfound knowledge called for a decision that I knew I had to make before the next payday. I prayed about it and asked God for strength to obey Him in this area. I was excited when I saw that the Scripture said I could prove Him in my finances. That’s right; God said I could test this out. I decided to trust God and His Scriptural plan for my life by becoming a tither and a giver of offerings. The offering that most interested me was the offering that promised a return when you give to your Spiritual Leadership. Therefore, I decided that with the next payday, I would cash my check on Friday, set aside $6.50 for my tithes; and give $5.00 to my Pastor as an offering to honor and bless my Spiritual Leader.

Now, that may not look like much to you at this time, but for me, that was bountiful giving at the sacrificial level. I had creditors whom I had to renegotiate with; I had to refigure my budget, and I had to go without some things to keep this commitment. However, I was convinced that if I did so, I would be the better. Among other reasons, this book is written to chronicle for you what God has done for me, since I made that commitment to honor Him with the tithe and to honor spiritual leadership with offerings.

It was a refreshing week when I became a tither and gave that $5.00 offering to honor my man of God; I expected something good to happen. I remember the reluctance of my Pastor when I put the $5.00 bill in his hand. He looked at me with utter dismay and tried to give the money back to me. I remember him saying that he knew how tough things were for me and he could not take my money. I recalled that I insisted on him taking the offering, and told him how this offering was not about him, but about a principle I found in the Bible. I expressed to him that when applying this principle, my obedience to God would obligate God to bless me. This principle, which I began to practice that day, is the principle that the Holy Spirit has directed me to share with you in this book. As a result of my obedience, I really expected something good to happen in my life.

In addition to feeling really good about my commitment, nothing significant happened that first week. The next week when I was paid, I repeated the process by giving $6.50 to the church and $5.00 to honor my Pastor. This went on for several weeks, and my expectations for something good happening in my life had manifested about the third or fourth week. I will never forget this day!

I went to work as I normally did on that Thursday, as I recall. I was called into the upstairs management office. You see, I worked on the warehouse floor and the offices of the owner and management staff was upstairs. I hadn’t been to the upstairs offices since the day I met with the bookkeeper, signed the employment forms and received company paperwork. Initially, I was a bit concerned because I thought that upper management had discovered that I did not own steel-toed boots (a violation of company policy). All kinds of thoughts rushed through my mind as I climbed the stairs to the Senior Manager’s office.

I had only met him once during the interview process; he was kind, a tall, robust, mixed grey-headed fellow. All the workers said he had been a Sergeant in the Vietnam War and that he was stern and meant business. He was always nice to me, but why was I being called to his office? What had I done? What was about to happen to me? I could not afford to lose this job because it was difficult to find. I had undergone interview, after interview, after interview. I had finally landed this job. The last thing I wanted to do was to go job-hunting again. I didn’t know whether I was perspiring from the walk up the stairs or from the fear attack, but I was finally at his open door.

To my surprise, he got up from his desk with a big grin on his face and walked toward me with an outstretched hand. We shook hands and he asked me to take a seat. Then, he began to tell me the reason for our impromptu meeting. He stated that my immediate supervisor had resigned and had recommended me to assume the supervisory role in the department. Wow! This was the last thing on my mind since I had the least seniority of all the workers in the department. Further, I did not have a relationship at all with the supervisor, other than I did my work with excellence. Assuming that I would accept the new position, the Senior Manager went on to tell me what my new salary would be; and though I had not seen the check, it was refreshing just to hear I was getting an increase. To my surprise, he told me that my new rate would be on my next check, which was the next day. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, the next thought that came to my mind was that my tithing and my giving was working and the blessings were manifesting.

The next Sunday was exciting because I could hardly wait for the offering time to give my increased tithes. After the service, I gave my increased honor offering to my Pastor. You should have seen the look on his face when I gave him his offering this time. I really don’t remember the exact amount of the increased amount of my honor offering; but every time I received increase, I was faithful to the principle.

My testimony continues beyond this first increase. It gets better. Several weeks into my new position as supervisor, I had a creative idea to rearrange some things in the warehouse that saved the company a significant amount of money; and as a result, I was given another increase. Of course, you know that meant my tithing increased and my giving to my spiritual leader increased. For the first time things were really looking up; the financial pressure was not so great and more opportunities to preach were being received.

About three months into practicing these principles of tithing and giving to spiritual leadership, something monumental happened that was nothing short of a supernatural move of God. One day, while working in the warehouse, enjoying my new and increased financial position, a young Hispanic gentleman from another department approached me with a statement that stunned me. His name was Arnold Gonzales, and he said, “Ira, you are a mighty smart guy to be working in a place like this.” I was stunned and replied with disdain, “Well, you work here too!” Arnold told me that he was working for the warehouse part-time, but his fulltime job was with a company called, Southwest Data Management, which was a computer company. Arnold was a computer operator and swore that he would tell the owner of the company about me.

To my surprise, the next day, Arnold came to my department with a big smile and handed me a business card from the president of Southwest Data Management, Frank Kurtin. Arnold recounted a conversation he had with Mr. Kurtin about me and said Mr. Kurtin wanted to talk to me. Arnold told me that Southwest Data Management currently had no job openings; but Mr. Kurtin expressed a willingness to take my application and keep it on file for the time when a Computer Operator trainee opportunity surfaced in the future. As he gave me the business card, he stated that Mr. Kurtin was expecting me to call him.

Later that day, I made the call, spoke directly to Mr. Kurtin and what a refreshing call that was. He stated that there were no Job Openings at present, but Arnold had given me a raving recommendation that stirred his interest in me. Mr. Kurtin suggested that the next time I was in the area; I should stop by, complete an application, and be interviewed. I told him I would be there the next day. He sensed my eagerness; and, again, he told me that there were no present job openings and there was no sense of urgency. I convinced him that tomorrow was a good day for me and he agreed.

I could not articulate it then, but the favor of God had been released on my life. Now, others were going out of their way to use their power and influence to help me. I arrived about fifteen minutes before the appointment with Mr. Kurtin and noticed as I looked around; I would not need to wear working boots there. Everyone I saw was sharply dressed in business attire. This was the kind of dress attire that I was required to wear when I worked in the office of Shell Oil Company. My heart pounded within my chest as Mr. Kurtin’s secretary called my name and said that he was ready to see me.

When I walked into his spacious office and began to dialogue with him, I knew this was a destiny moment for me. He began to recant that there were no job openings. As he glanced through the application that I had completed while waiting in the reception area, he asked me to follow him to another office. There he gave me the instructions for taking their Standard Aptitude Test. He presented the papers, set the timer, and walked out. I had not been in this type of classroom testing setting for quite some time and was not really expecting to take a test, but I was going to give this my best shot.