"And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."

-          Luke 10:35

 

      

I find it very fascinating how Jesus taught so many truths about living a kingdom life through the use of money.  He mentions the parable of the talents and the pounds. He used a lost coin to represent the life of a sinner lost in his sin. He taught about the merchant seeking goodly pearls, and how he valued the pearl of great price. He explains about the shrewd actions of an unjust steward, who made friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Over and over again, he gives us examples as to how money is used to explain a spiritual principle, or how exchanges are made with money and how it applies to the exchange of heaven's economy.

        When Jesus said, "Occupy until I come" (Luke 19:13), he was expressing the idea of an economic structure within the kingdom of God. The word "occupy" means to be about "a" business, or to carry on "the" business. There is a business that we need to tend to. It's the Father's business. When Jesus was in the temple, only twelve years of age, his parents came looking for him and asked, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." But he answered, and said unto them, "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:48, 49).       

        This business of the Father is all about doing the will of God. It's about making every step we take a step of stewardship. Peter wrote in his first epistle, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Pet. 4:10). The grace of God is a heavenly commodity, just as money is an earthly commodity. We are called upon to steward God's grace. Stewards are those who are placed as trustees of an estate. They handle the arrangements of another person's will. They manage someone else's affairs. We have been given a kingdom which cannot be moved, which has an economic structure just like any economy. The transfer of heaven's wealth into the earth, interest drawn on our investments in people, having a heavenly account, is all about the means of operating the Father's business. That's why the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, "let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Heb. 12:28).       

       God takes our doing his business very seriously. We must realize that every spiritual transaction demands our participation in the grace of God. There is no other means of exchange in doing God's will.  He orders our steps, he guides our decisions, and he puts into our hands the treasures of heaven. It is up to us to treat it like we would if we were working with heaven's bankroll.

        Over in Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, chapters eight and nine, he expresses how the saints in Macedonia had sown into the kingdom as a matter of grace giving. In other words, their obedience in giving, released the grace of God to work in their behalf. Think about that! They gave their own lives to the Lord, and then sowed into the kingdom in obedience to the will of God, and God saw it as a means of exchange where it released the economy of heaven.

        Think about how your financial investments are measured back to you in terms of grace: "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, He that dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth forever" (2 Cor. 9:6-9). When you sow into the needs of others, you are investing in the highest stock in heaven, a yield bearing interest of righteousness that holds the key to the vault of heaven!