Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

and giving tithes—than at any time in the previous six thousand or so years of mankind’s existence! Thousands of sincere believers have consistently and in faith planted their best seed offering in hopes of receiving the promised “hundredfold … sixty … and thirty” return (Matt. 13:23), only to find that three years later they are still receiving the same amount in their weekly paychecks. One older believer told me that he gave almost eight thousand dollars over a period of two years in hopes of getting a major financial breakthrough that had been promised on a telecast. He came to a crisis point where he could not pay for his wife’s needed medication. When he contacted two ministries, asking in honest sincerity why he had not received the predicted blessing that had been announced by the minister, one responded in a letter by saying, “You do not have enough faith.” The second letter said, “There must be some sin in your life!” This older gentleman and his wife had served God for many decades, and his moral and spiritual life was an example of purity to others. He wept and fell into self-appointed condemnation, not from the Lord, but from the piercing words of the two ministers who wrote to him. The lack of answered prayer, the shortage of needed financial breakthroughs, and the seemingly brass heavens seem to indicate that those “windows of heaven” prophesied in Malachi to open over us and “pour out … blessing” (Mal. 3:10) are now closed, and the gate of heaven’s blessings has been slammed shut.