Opening Up Heaven’s Windows

When Anita Hightower was pregnant with her third child, she didn’t make a lot of money.

Antia remembers, “I was working part-time, we barely made ends meet and the kids were wearing hand-me-down clothes.” At the bank where she worked, a co-worker invited her to church and told her about tithing. Anita recalls, “I'm thinking, "Uh, I can't tithe."

"I don't have enough money to tithe. Looking back now, it was the Holy Spirit convicting me, saying, "Trust me."  Anita started tithing, with an already stretched budget, she trusted God would provide.  “I just started doing it, even though I didn't feel like I could do it."

And the bills were still being paid. It was like I didn't even tithe,” said Anita.
She stayed consistent with her tithes, and over the next year she was amazed at what happened. “I got a better job from working at the bank to now I'm working for the State of California. I got seven promotions within a nine-year period. I just was amazed how good God is,” says Anita.  During her time with the State, her income increased by more than 500%! Anita attributes all to God’s faithfulness.

Anita smiles and says, “When you're obedient to God, I think His way of showing up for you is showing that you're not going to lose out. Because I think when we give, we're thinking, "I'm going to lose out. I'm not going to be able to do this or that or go here or there." But you're not going to lose anything. If anything, you're going to gain something.”  In addition to tithing, God prompted her to do more. She says, 
“There's been several times when I went above and beyond my tithing, and when I did that, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit, but at the same time, I felt like, "Ugh, I can't really afford that. I mean, I was still able to do what I needed to do or wanted to do, but at the time, you feel like, "Oh gosh, this is a big sacrifice.”

Anita continued trusting God with her finances and started supporting non-profits and ministries including CBN. “I love seeing 700 Club. I love all the different stories that they have, all the different opportunities that I have to give, because now I'm a partner. I love to see the surgeries on the cleft palate, the before and after. It's just amazing how different the kids look after that's done. I love the Operation Blessing, how they help people that have gone through all these different things, fires or floods or hurricanes. They're there to help them,” she says. Today, Anita enjoys being semi-retired and the joy of giving.

“I am so glad that the person that spoke to me at my job, which was younger than me, a single girl living at home, trying to tell me about tithing, well, thank God she did tell me about tithing, says Anita. “That's the main thing is to be obedient so you can see that God can make a way out of no way.”