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THE LAWS OF BIBLICAL PROSPERITY
Part Twenty-Seven - Understanding God's Priorities for Money
Volume X Number 10 July 13, 2007

In this issue

Links to FREE Articles

Why God is Concerned About Money

God's Priorities for the Use of His Money

Some Final Thoughts

Sinners' Prayer

Prayer Requests

Donations

Questions and Suggestions


 

Links to FREE Articles


Links to Special Financial Services















"Owe no man anything..."
-Romans 13:8














"...the borrower becomes the lender's slave."
-Proverbs 22:7















"...the righteous man shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17















"...without faith it is impossible to please Him."
-Hebrews 11:6















"No one can serve two masters..."
-Matthew 6:24















"The Lord will make you abound in prosperity..."
-Deuteronomy 25:11















"...God loves a cheerful giver."
-2 Corinthians 9:7















"...the Lord... is giving you power to make wealth..."
-Deuteronomy 8:18

















Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus!

Biblical prosperity is the state of total well being where God is meeting all your needs: spirit, soul and body.

Since the beginning of this series we have emphasized that biblical prosperity isn't limited to just money and finances. Rather, the prosperity that God offers is for the entire human life: spirit, soul and body. This perspective is accurately expressed in the Hebrew word "shalom" translated in the Old Testament as both "peace" and "prosperity." It's also expressed in the New Testament as the "peace that passes all understanding" by which Jesus makes available abundant LIFE to all Believers (John 10:10). Both expressions convey a condition of completed well being in which there's nothing missing or broken in any area of one's life.

But we've also maintained that the Word of God does not exclude our finances from His prosperity. On the contrary, our money is an important part of it even though traditional teaching has tried for centuries to convince us that the Bible isn't really talking about our personal finances when it mentions "prosperity." Rather, according to tradition those particular scriptures are concerned with higher spiritual things, a type of esoteric prosperity reserved for the future that we just can't fully understand in our present condition without assistance from experienced theologians.

Friend, the truth is prosperity scriptures speak clearly for themselves; study them out in the original languages and you'll find they're usually talking about our personal possessions in one form or another. Men have tried to exclude finances from biblical prosperity in an attempt to explain why so many Believers aren't prosperous. But, it just isn't possible to experience "shalom" if one's finances are inadequate. Likewise, the fullness of the "peace that passes all understanding" can't exist where there's present financial lack. Scripturally then, completed well being includes our current finances. Shall we believe the Word of God as it's written or the traditions of men? In sum, while the Lord's prosperity message isn't limited to just our current personal finances, it's NOT correct to interpret that scripture excludes those personal finances from His message.


  • Why God is Concerned About Money
  • In fact, God is actually quite interested in how we deal with, relate to and use our finances in the present here and now. Did you know that more than two-thirds of the parables in the four New Testament Gospels are concerned with money, possessions or property? Although Jesus said and did much more than what was actually recorded in those Gospels (John 21:25), it's reasonable to conclude from the parables that money was an important topic for Him. Indeed the parables are there in His Word because God wants to teach us about His money. But the question we want to address today is: why is God so interested in the topic of personal finances?

    One reason can be found in Luke 12:34: "For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also" (see also Matthew 6:21). In other words, whatever you value highly in life will be important to you. Jesus was trying to teach us here that if we hold money in too high a regard, we are likely to end up with wrong priorities in our lives because the power of money is so strong it will become of higher importance to us than the Kingdom of God (Luke 12:31). Jesus taught that when that happens, when money is too important, we will then prefer to store up for ourselves treasure on earth instead of treasure in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20, Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:21, and Luke 18:22).

    Another reason God is so interested in how we handle money is the simple principle that if we fall in love with our money or possessions, we're sure to fall into evil. Does the Bible not say that "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10)? It also says that the love of money leads to disappointment, dissatisfaction and destruction (1 Samuel 8:3, Proverbs 1:13-16, Ecclesiastes 5:10, Jeremiah 17:11 and Micah 3:11-12) as well as to sorrow and wandering away from the faith (1 Timothy 6:10 and James 5:3). Thus, it can be said that although Jesus came to bring us abundant life (John 10:10), the love of money is in fundamental conflict with that gift because we are required, among other things, to seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) in order to receive His abundance.

    Most of God's material provision comes to us in the form of money or possessions which we have to learn how to deal with it in a Godly and righteous manner. While we are not to love money, we can't hate it either because God has purpose for us in the use of His money. He needs to be able to get it into our hands with confidence it will be used correctly according to scripture to achieve two principle objectives: 1) to build the Kingdom of God, and 2) to bless other people. The bottom line is that Jesus devoted so much attention in the Gospels to the subject of finances because no Believer can fulfill the purposes God has called him/her to fulfill without learning how to prioritize and use money correctly and because nothing in life approaches the power of money to corrupt us and lead us into destruction.

  • God's Priorities for the Use of His Money
  • Scripture reveals that God has definite and specific priorities for how we're to use the money He provides. Despite this, most of us go through life without giving too much thought to how we're spending it or whether or not He might have a plan we're supposed to be following. As a result we make wrong decisions and suffer the consequences of not having God involved in this important area of our lives.

    The truth is God's priorities for spending money are significantly different from the priorities we pursue when left to ourselves. If we compare the different priorities starting from most important and going to the least important, we can see the clear difference:

    God's Priorities
    Tithes
    Offerings/Blessing others
    Our needs
    Rewards

    Our Priorities
    Rewards
    Our needs
    Doing what we want to do
    Tithes and Offerings

    The Word clearly shows that God's highest priority for His provision is the return of the first 10 percent of our increase, the first fruits or tithe. By returning the first part to God, we honor Him (Proverbs 3:9) because we're releasing something we treasure and we're putting Him ahead of our personal wants and desires. We're also putting first the Kingdom of God because tithe money is used for building the Kingdom. But, when we allow the flesh to tell us what to do instead of the Word, most of us will tithe only after we've spent our money on what we want and then only if we have anything left over.

    Why does God require that we place Him first in our lives? Certainly He's worthy; He's the Creator and everything in the universe belongs to Him. He's Lord of all. Is this why He demands that we put Him first? Well, those would be good reasons; but there's a much better reason in the Father's heart. The truth is putting Him first is for our own good because if we don't put Him first, we'll wind up putting ourselves first. And when we put ourselves first, we're doomed to certain failure in everything we try because we'll be trying to do those things in our own strength. Jesus said, "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

    Friend, the bottom line is this: we've been created with an inherited dependence upon God. If it weren't so, He would have created peers instead of children. And by returning the tithe as your first priority for His money, you are making the admission, confirmed in scripture, that you have chosen to depend on Him for your provision. You have voluntarily submitted to His Lordship over the one thing you would otherwise hold most dear. When you do that, you open the door to the prosperity and the running over abundance God has promised in His Word (Malachi 3:10, Luke 6:38, 2 Corinthians 9:8 and many other scriptures).

    And what are we supposed to do with that abundance? A lot of us in the Christian community want to believe that God desires to bless us with prosperity and abundance simply because He wants us all to be rich and have big houses, a lot of cars and surplus money to spend on whatever comes to our minds. But that's an incomplete perspective. Indeed God wants us to prosper and succeed, but friend there's a higher purpose: we are to use that wealth to bless others as an expression, a manifestation, of God's love (2 Corinthians 9:8-11) before we consume it all on ourselves. In other words, blessing others must be a higher priority in our lives than self consumption. When it's not, we're in danger of consuming on ourselves the seed God has given for the purpose of blessing others and in the process cutting off the multiplied harvest God wants to make available to us (2 Corinthians 9:10). Scripture warns us to be on guard against greed and to not use our abundance to acquire possessions just to store them up (Luke 12:15-21). Therefore, each of us must find out from God how much we are to sow into good works so we avoid the mistake of consuming that money on ourselves.

    Not until the third priority for the use of money do we come to provision for our needs. The reason is that the Word makes it clear in Matthew 6:25-34 that we're not to be concerned about the basic requirements for life because God has already taken care of them. The only thing we really need to do is clearly identify what our needs actually are because we have a tendency to let other things come over into the "needs" category when we ask God for provision. If we think we have to ask Him for funds to cover our needs it's probably an indication that something in our lives is not quite right anyway because scripture says not to be concerned about it. One of the major problem areas is indebtedness which has usually resulted from occasions when we provided for ourselves instead of being content with God's provision. Then once in debt we began to view our repayment requirements as a need that God is supposed to cover for us when in fact His Word warns us to stay away from indebtedness. In sum, we need to avoid debt so repayment doesn't become an issue with God's provision and we should identify what our needs really are and refuse to be concerned about the related provision.

    The fourth of God's priorities for money is that it be used to reward or compensate each Believer according to the fruit he or she has produced working for the Kingdom of God. The Bible says that a laborer is worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7). Therefore, those who produce fruit for the Kingdom of God can expect to receive the appropriate "wages" for their work. When you give offerings of your money out of love to bless others you are producing fruit. And whatever you give up for the sake of the Gospel will be returned to you a hundred times over in this present age (Mark 10:29-30). Therefore a portion of the money God is giving you is a return for the good fruit that you have produced for the Kingdom of God. As you prove your faithfulness with a little, God will trust you with greater amounts and He will reward you with increasing compensation.

    In addition to compensation here in this age, the Bible says in several places (Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:33, and Luke 18:22) that God will also reward you with "treasure in Heaven." Out of this treasure God compensates you for your good deeds both in this life and also in the life to come. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus will reward you for as a part of the final judgment (Revelation 20:11-12 and 22:12).

    Left to ourselves and the influence of the world, we will tend to spend God's provision with an entirely different set of priorities. We put ourselves first instead of God and so our primary concern is how much money we have coming in. We will strive to maximize our income and even compromise our God-given values and principles to do so. Since we are in control instead of God, what we buy to cover the basic areas of need tends to exceed what we actually need and so we begin to go into debt to supplement God's provision. We go further into debt by purchasing consumer goods that we want and desire and by doing so we become involved in a transfer of wealth from the Kingdom of God to the world instead of the other way around thus depleting the funds that are available to do the work of the Kingdom. Many Christians are so bound up in interest payments to the world there's nothing left over and they have to "postpone" tithing and giving. When you are not able to tithe, you are no longer placing God first in your life and you become temporarily disqualified from the financial part of the abundant life that Jesus came to give us (John 10:10). This is what happens when we don't place God first in our lives and resort to our substitute priorities for the use of His money. And this is why God is so interested in seeing to it that we learn how to handle His provision according to the right priorities.

  • Some Final Thoughts
  • Friend, would you like to experience greater financial blessing in your life? Maybe you can see now that the manifestation of biblical prosperity is directly dependent in large degree on how well we learn to handle money. Prosperity seems to flow to those who are good stewards of their finances. Thus, since God wants us to be prosperous in every area of life, He is interested in teaching us how to be good stewards. If we can learn to follow His priorities instead of ours, we are sure to experience His prosperity in this present life as we wait for the better life to come.

    God bless you and thanks for reading Prosperous Life Newsletter. We'll be looking for you again in three weeks on August 3.

  • Sinners' Prayer
  • If you have never invited Jesus to become the Lord of your life, you can do so today by saying the following simple prayer: Jesus I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me for my sins and come into my life today.

    If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith based bible teaching church where you can be developed to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God. If you're unable to find a church, give us a call and we'll help you find a good one.

  • Prayer Requests
  • Please e-mail your prayer requests to: [email protected]. We'll be honored to bring them before the Lord each Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM, Eastern Time.

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  • Questions and Suggestions
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