MoneyWalk 134: Money Management Prayer

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You must commit to daily prayer in order to make your endeavors worthwhile and successful. Such humility is important to God and is necessary for blessing and reward for you, your family, and other people He wants you to help. There is no exception to this truth. It is as important in the area of money management as it is in every other area of life.

Offer praise and prayer while at work and plan for longer conversation with the LORD during your time at home and church. Cultivating such relationship with God will cause the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind so you can take necessary actions to allow prosperity to flow in your situation. He will give you knowledge and understanding of money management principles in the bible and supernaturally reveal other moves you should make to bring blessings upon your life and loved ones.

The bible contains mighty principles that help you pull down debt strongholds, change spending habits, and place ungodly desires into captivity. These principles bathed in prayer will help you get your financial house in order. The praying person (one who communicates with God regularly) is the only person who is truly successful.

Don't leave prayer out of your day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month budgeting of money and resources. When you are willing to find out what God wants you to do and take action to do it, He provides (according to His riches in glory) all the understanding, spiritual strength, and supernatural help you need to complete the work during your lifetime. However, when you don't manage money and resources according to God's will, you're headed for financial failure and all of its negative consequences.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalms 37:4, Matthew 18:18, 2Corinthians 10:3-4, Philippians 4:6

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You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.

MoneyWalk 133: See The Vision And Plan For It

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God will give you a vision of what He wants you to do on the earth. If you don’t know your vision yet, ask God to reveal it to you and He will. He will likely reveal it as a picture in your mind of an outcome He desires or a feeling in your heart of something that you’re supposed to do or a path you’re supposed to take. Sometimes, it may be pursuing something you already enjoy doing (music, art, sports, youth ministry, speaking, etc.). Often the mind picture and heart feeling will confirm one another. God does not often identify each and every step it takes to get there, but will give you important promptings and opportunities that will, if obeyed, lead to where He wants you to go and what He wants you to do.

Once you begin to see the vision, no matter how complete or incomplete, write down where you see the vision taking you in 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, 3 years, and 1 year. Then, plan for it to happen. You must keep the belief alive in your heart and mind no matter what setbacks, catastrophes, or other obstacles present themselves over the years of pursuing the vision. These things will come, many times from satan, however God will direct you in such a way that they will be used to strengthen you and make your victories sweet along the way while giving greater glory to God because of the adversity that was endured.

In prayer, set goals that you'll pursue in reaching the vision. Your goals are actions that you'll take with an end date in mind (one-year, five-years, etc.) to fulfill a part of your vision. Usually, people set goals to identify what they want to accomplish by the date certain, which also entail what they expect the situation to present for them. For example, a goal could be to write 1,000 radio stations within the next year with the result of speaking on 10 new stations. So a goal has two aspects, what you can do and what others have to help you do. Your part helps influence the outcome that you cannot control: actually being able to speak on 10 new stations.

As a Christian we should expect that our vision and goals are greater than what we alone can accomplish. First, we need almighty God, for whom all things are possible, to make a way and provide opportunities for us to achieve them. Secondly, we need other people (Christians and unbelievers) to help us along the way because God always makes the pathway to accomplishment through other people. Another significant point to remember is that during the course of our life journey to fulfill the vision, we will engage other jobs and sometimes work without pay.

Some work will not seem to be along the path to our vision and we will wonder why we’re doing it or why we’re in a position that we have to do it. Of course, you need to be careful of letting others (unbelievers and Christians) beguile you into doing things outside of God’s will for your life, whether it be a particular job at a given time or engaging in an unholy process to achieve success.

Yet, you must be mindful that most CEO’s, business owners, pastors, and other leaders originally worked in the rank and file, on the assembly line, or in the lower bowels of a business / ministry long before they were selected or grabbed the horns of leadership, position, or prominence. In the early days, many did not know that these jobs would lead to having a much greater position, authority, and ability to serve other people in the business / ministry for which God equipped them. They simply remained faithful to the organizations through which they served by faithfully completing assignments they were given and helping the organizations better serve their clientele.

Finally, the road to pursuing your vision will be less rocky when you keep an eye on your budget several months in advance, so it can quickly let you know how much disposable income you'll have available to spend in pursuit of your goals and how much you need from other people. Budgeting will help you control your urge to spend money you don't have on things you don't need and will help you trust that God will provide through other people what you are not able to obtain without going in debt. When you allow your budget to help you stay out of debt as God has directed in the bible, you will see your bill entries eliminated and your disposable income grow and other people miraculously come to your aid to help fund portions of the vision that you cannot fund.

As you go about fulfilling your God-given vision, count the cost before making purchases, so unnecessary purchases don't negatively affect your plans. Employing such wisdom moves God's hand and people’s hearts to help you achieve the vision. Over time, you’ll see your goals achieved and God’s heart pleased as you continue in the work He gave you and it will increase the resources you have available to care for your family and help other people.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Proverbs 3:5-6, 6:6-11, 16:9, 29:18, Luke 14:28-32, James 4:1-3

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.

MoneyWalk 132: Good Stewards Maintain A Budget

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Worldly financial experts have said paying yourself first is the solution to all your financial woes. However, that method doesn't work, unless you know what your net income is and you spend less than your net income minus what you paid yourself first during each pay period. This is called budgeting. If you don't budget, you'll eventually stop paying yourself first and you'll spend all that you previously saved to obtain needed cash to meet your un-affordable living standard.

I certainly believe that you should pay yourself as close to first as legally possible. However, unless your employer pays you under the table (which is generally not godly and can land employers and employees in legal trouble and prison), other entities will receive a good chunk of money you earn (the IRS, social security and Medicare administrations, union dues, health care deductions, etc.) before you receive and are able to save some for yourself.

Even independent contractors and business owners have obligations that must be paid before they can legally put money away for their own savings and investment. For instance, if you don’t pay quarterly taxes due, then all that you’ve paid yourself and more could be required of you in taxes, interest, and penalties. Failure to pay the right amount over a prolonged period of time could be considered tax evasion and land you in prison.

Therefore, a budget is necessary because it helps you know how much you earn over given periods of time which in turn helps you understand amounts that you are obligated to pay in taxes and other requirements. Also, it helps define the amount of income that is disposable to spend on other desired products and services that are not needs. The greatest financial need everyone has is giving a proportionate amount of income to honor God to allow the biblical law of reciprocity to supernaturally grow their wealth.

Food and shelter are certainly earthly needs as well as transportation. Most other expenditures are for desires. A budget allows you to place all things in their proper priority. Regular planned giving to the church and to other people’s needs as God directs (alms) assures that God will provide your need according to His riches in glory. When He provides you must understand that giving a portion back to perpetuate the gospel and growing God’s kingdom in the hearts of men is the highest financial priority, then shelter, food, transportation, clothing, and other things in lesser priority.

Many times people don’t have a budget and also don’t prioritize in the right manner. They act as if they cannot get food and clothing free of charge from many different sources when in fact they can get these things when in need without spending any of their own money or not much at all. Also, many people try to hold onto houses with mortgages currently above their ability to bear because they make it look to other people like they have reached a coveted socio-economic status or they are living the life. Don’t let the American Dream become your American Nightmare.

Instead, look for and accept less costly alternatives over the short haul in order to make ends meet during tough financial times. You should consider staying with family and friends, buying only off clearance racks and only within a reasonable monthly shopping budget, or buying only from secondhand stores until your finances are in good shape and you have an ability to splurge a little.

Such options are available for everyone when their need over the short and long-haul is not based on perpetual irresponsibility. A number of suitable options that positively affect your financial situation appear when your need is based on an emergency or catastrophe you could not predict, foresee, or bypass (acute surgery, recent layoff, death of a bread winner, etc. Looking for, asking for, and utilizing these options when necessary, along with properly prioritizing and budgeting spending, help you weather the financial storm and grow wealth over the course of your life, so at some point you never have to be in a bad financial situation again.

When you succumb to it, the modern day system of obtaining loans and looking to credit, credit reports, and credit scores as the measure of financial strength hampers budgeting strategies. When you spend all you make and continually get loans to buy everything you want, the day will come when you'll have a mountain of bills you can't pay. Don't be fooled, whether you're considered rich or poor you can get into a habit of overspending your net income and can end up in financial ruin.

A budget helps measure all your expenses, so you know when you're living above your means. It will help you see which expenditures to eliminate or reduce to allow you live having joy and peace and the elimination of worry and its accompanying stress. When you mix budgeting with honoring God first through tithing, you have a potent combination that is supernaturally charged to prosper you to take care of your needs, other people’s needs, and plant and water gospel seeds in many people’s hearts.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalm 37:23, Proverbs 30:24-25, Ecclesiastes 10:18-19, Habakkuk 2:2-4, Luke 16:9

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.

MONEYWALK 131: What Is The State Of Your Finances?

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You are committing financial harm to yourself when you do not regularly save a portion of each paycheck in order to build an emergency fund that can take care of financial needs when rainy days ultimately come in your life. The destructive poor stewardship tendency that leads most people to fail to save is caused and perpetuated by regularly taking on loans to purchase products and services you don’t have cash to pay cash for. Also, some portion of it is caused by failure to immediately subtract account withdrawals from your checkbook. In addition, when you don't reconcile your bank account(s) at the beginning of each month you compound the poor stewardship until it finally results in some financial destruction (unbearable debt, repossession, foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce, homelessness, loss of belief and trust in Jesus Christ, etc.).

When you display poor stewardship tendencies, you're a financial kamikaze that will inevitably crash and burn. The problem is your irresponsibility will damage your own ship (your personal economy and thus relationship with your spouse, children, church family, friends, etc.). The bible instructs you to monitor the state of your income versus your expenditures, so you do not become a tool of satan while thinking you are justified in acting irresponsibly with your finances.

In order to let peace and joy overcome financial destruction, you must keep the amount of your expenses well below the amount of your income. For example, you must budget in such a way that you spend no more than 70% of your after tax income on necessities and desires. You should also establish a habit of regularly tithing ten percent of your income, so that you open the window of heaven over your life to receive tremendous blessing to carry out your purpose and help others. If you don't like to hear the word "budget," would you rather hear the phrase "trapped in debt, relationships ruined, god-given purposes averted?"

When you don't budget, you inevitably overspend your income and get trapped in debt. Financial and spiritual ruin silently overtake most people who fail to budget; just like carbon monoxide silently and without odor takes the life of people trapped in closed buildings. Sometimes, other people do not know the state you’re in until they see you limp and lifeless.

This destruction happens because you were convinced by the enemy of your soul, satan, that you are wiser than God and thus could forsake God’s instructions without consequence. However, just like Adam and Eve you lose far more than you imagine when you take the satan’s word and manage money according to his instructions; destruction will come and it doesn’t matter who reaches out to help you, you’ll continue to be in a place of natural, financial, and possibly eternal torment.

This is not the future God planned for you! If you want to grow financially healthy, wealthy, and wise, you must keep your expenses below your income by staying out of debt. Also, you must do the other things that allow you to stay focused on God’s will and His instructions: get saved, worship Christ daily, pray daily, read the scriptures daily, join a local church, fellowship with believers every week, and be committed on a long-term basis to a ministry sanctioned by your church.

This pattern will serve you in the natural, financial, and eternal arenas of your life. The road to prosperity is not hard to navigate, but it requires setting your face like flint to obey biblical instruction and disciplining yourself to heed the words of our Lord Jesus, who asked what man would attempt to erect a building without first counting the cost. You can only build His building, one that glorifies Him, when you follow His instructions. For if the Lord does not build the house (through you following His guidance), you (the workman) labor in vain!

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalm 127:1, Proverbs 27:23-24, Habakkuk 2:2-3, Luke 14:28-30

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.