1. THE YOKE.
2. THE OBEDIENCE PRINCIPLE.
3. THE LAW OF PHYSICS AND WEALTH.
4. TRADE SECRETS – Flowing Wealth & Gaining Wealth.
THE YOKE.
Either you will be yoked to blessing or you will be yoked to curses. This truth is applicable to all people weather they are Christians or not. The principal of applying this truth is simple – the power of association will pick you up or cause you to fall.
‘Choose this day who you will serve …’.
As well as ‘a man can not serve two masters..’
Many people claim to have given their lives to the Lord, but still go on living for themselves. Making each decision they make being ruled by how much they have or have not.
Romans 12:2 ‘Do not be confirmed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.. .’
2 Cor. 6:17 Paul says ‘come out and be separate from the world…’
This transforming and coming out of the world system is being taken out of sin and slavery into freedom spiritually, financially and in every other area.
Proverbs 22:7 ‘Because the borrower is a slave to the lender...’
Debt is a yoke of slavery that binds us and causes us not to act in obedience to God.
The number one reasons, Christians are not free today is because the spirit of mammon has control of them and dictates to them when to bow and when to rise. This restricts Christians and stops them from being obedient to the call of God on their life. So often, I have heard Christians say, ‘I will go as soon as I have sorted out my finances’ or ‘as soon as I am debt free, I will do what the Lord has called me to do.’
Do not make decisions based on money – Make decisions based on what God says.
In the last 20 years, credit is more accessible and debt is more evident. Credit for believers is not from God, it is a snare of the devil to entrap Christians and cause them to become immobile and unable to go into the entire world to preach the good news of the Kingdom. Nearly every retailer and wholesaler has credit facilities to allow you to purchase items and pay later.
God principal is that you work first and then pay. The spirit of mammon says, ‘enjoy the item now and pay later’.
The church is called to be the light of the world. Christians say, ‘How can we speak into adverse circumstances, if we are in debt ourselves like everyone else’
We as Christians have a responsibility. The responsibility is to call the things that are not as though they are and then to put into practice what we speak. There is a saying that goes like this ‘money talks’.
Matthew 6:21 ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ As the Bride of Christ we need to have our heart singularly focused on Christ as our priority. Then in being good stewards of the Lords money we will see the blessings of God come to our finances.
The Bible does not argue that money is right or wrong. What is strongly emphasized is that the love of money is the root of evil. Money is one of the gifts that God has given to us richly to enjoy.
1 Tim. 6:17. If money is the goal, being a positive goal or in a negative context, then you have a major problem.
Matt.6:33 ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, then all these things will be added to you.
C.S. Lewis said, ‘once we miss a turn and start down the wrong road, it will never become the right road. The only way we can get back on the right road is to go back to where we missed that original turn.’
Go back and find out what is your rightful inheritance and heritage. You are called to rule as a KING. The plan of God is that you rule over what He has entrusted to you. The realm of finances – the plan of God is to take His church from a minus bank balance to out of debt and then to have more than enough.
The secret is:
Never make a decision based on Money.
Only make decisions based on obedience to God’s Word.
THE OBEDIENCE PRINCIPLE.
There are essentially three principals of obedience regarding finances.
1. The first principle is to become free from the yoke that binds you to the spirit of mammon, and to become yoked to Christ. In becoming yoked to Christ, you become a bond slave to Christ and therefore transfer all ownership of wealth and possession over to Him. This includes debt. Though there will be the consequences of your slavery that you need to rid yourself of – this can be done through good steward-ship and obedience to the obedience principles of God’s Word.
2. The second principle is to experience healing. To apply this and bring healing to pass is forgive yourself and then forgive others that have robed from you, abused you or even mis-used you. Also another way experience financial healing is to give instead of to get. Giving is done in different ways.
a. First fruits – Tarumah.
b. Tithes.
c. Offerings.
d. Love gifts.
God does not need your money, your vehicle, your house, your clothing or your food. God wants you heart.
3. The third principle is to avoid the four traps of financial bondage.
a. Impulse buying.
Eccl. 4:8 ‘The eye is never satisfied with riches....’
Eccl. 5:10 ‘He that loves silver will not be satisfied with it. Nor he that loves abundance of increase.’
b. Dissatisfaction and discontentment of what you have. All ways wanting more. Never enough and lusting for what others have.
c. Laziness. The bible says a little folding of the arms brings poverty.
d. Words that bind. Prov. 18:21 ‘The power of life and death are on the tongue and those that love it will eat its fruit.’
THE LAW OF PHYSICS AND WEALTH.
Isaac Newton said that the law of physics is that energy is never destroyed, it simply changes form.
The same is true for wealth. Wealth is never destroyed. It only changes form and changes ownership.
Eg. The great depression: ‘people lost great wealth, while some people who where not slaves to debt gained great wealth from those who over extended themselves with debt.’
We are heading for a greater economic collapse than that of the great depression or that of the Asian flu crisis.
Most Christians in the church are in so much debt, that they can not respond to the call of God and when the next economic crisis hits us we will be in a worse place than people where during the great depression.
We need to change the negative situation to a positive situation and to do this we need a strategy from God.
2 Kings 4: the we read that the wife of a deceased servant to Elisha the prophet, cried out. ‘Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.’
So Elisha responds ‘What can I do.., and what do you have in your house?’
She replies’ nothing except a little oil.’
TRADE SECRETS
There are two points of this principal;
• ‘FLOWING WEALTH’
• ‘GAINING WEALTH’
Flowing Wealth.
To have wealth flow through you:
• You need to do it with a joyful heart.
• You need to do it unto the Lord.
• You need to do it according to your faith.
Gaining Wealth – To have wealth come to you, you can not give what you do not have.
• You need to gather some empty vessels.
• Pour what you have into the lives of empty vessels.
• Close the doors to unbelief and create some wealth.
• Sell the oil, and make enough to pay the debt and live on the rest.
• She had to become a business person – ‘God will give you the ability to generate wealth with the work of your hands’
What is your TRADE SECRET?
• What can you give your life to 100% for the rest of your life?
• What does everyone want from you?
• What is the talent that God has given to you?
GOD WANTS TO TAKE US TO THE NEXT LEVEL.
