MoneyWalk 21: Financial Obedience

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Being obedient to God is of utmost importance when managing your money. If you don't consistently use biblical money management principles, you'll never reap benefits God wants you to have. He wants you to prosper, however true and lasting prosperity is had only when you consistently manage your life and resources according to biblical standards so you can sow time, talent, and money into the lives of other people.

He wants to bless you immensely, rebuke the devourer, and stop satanic forces from causing you many spiritual and financial hardships. This comes only when you consistently work as unto the Lord and pay tithes and give offerings from your produce. This obedience is a necessary extension of faith that enables you to grow in stature with God and man. It helps them see that you have New Testament saving and sanctifying faith instead of empty words with no godly action behind them.

Faith without works (corresponding action) is dead when it doesn’t move you closer to the will of God in Christ. When you don't obey Christ by allowing biblical principles to guide your life, you become a servant to Satan, sin, and those you borrow from. Your life, purpose, and worth will be on a path of destruction that will hinder your ability to live godly, minister to others, and prosper on earth. If left unchanged, this will lead to the destruction of your eternal relationship with Christ and the heavenly home He wants you to have.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Deuteronomy 11:27, 1Samuel 15:22, Matthew 28:20, Acts 5:29
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MoneyWalk 20: Walking By Faith

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is infallible and unable to make mistakes. He's all-powerful and all-knowing and has the ability to make sure that what's translated for you in the bible is complete and whole. He guides born again believers that listen to Him in every area of life and every situation that arises by commanding them to keep specific laws in some areas and giving them principles with boundaries to use in managing other areas. In fact, He lives in us to direct us to His perfect will.

Search the scriptures and you will see that God has identified Himself in these ways throughout the bible. If you're un-saved, your true need is not to be successful in this world to receive the accolades of men nor to simply have free time to do everything you thing is pleasurable to you. Your true need is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord so that:

1) Eternal life with God almighty is yours.

2) Your mind is renewed to pursue your true purpose on earth where your gifts, talents, and skills are meshed and entwined through your vocation(s) with evangelism and discipleship of others. This is the only way that you can mature in God’s will and it happens while you seek to lead other people to Him and be a catalyst for their growth.

3) Eternal blessings, which result from your willingness to labor for His will to be done in earth, can be deposited in your heavenly bank account to await your arrival in the new heavens and new earth.

Then, you need to allow your faith to rise to believe the real truth that God is everything He said He is in the bible: the way, the truth, the life, the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and the almighty judge of heaven and earth who will one day judge the living and the dead.

If you want to be successful in this life and be accepted in His eternal presence, you must believe on Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, seek His will each day, and be obedient to follow His commands in every area of life. Some think that faith displays itself in praying for riches that it appears you’ll never receive or spending all the income that you receive and believing that God will come through to take care of your needs and future desires or simply not planning the manner in which you’ll spend your assets.

However, it takes faith to do anything that God directed us to do as written in the bible. It takes great faith to write your vision, plan for the future, work to earn a living and build wealth, budget so you don’t overspend your income, stay out of debt, refuse to cosign, save, invest, and teach your children the same. In fact, it takes a faith being built upon day in and day out, year in and year out to overcome all the unbiblical advice you’ll receive to do the opposite and your human nature which desires to handle finances and life in the same manner as the Joneses. Walk by faith and not by sight in the Spirit and not in the flesh and you’ll place yourself in the best possible lifestyle and financial position as you grow more and more in Christ-likeness.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Habakkuk 2:4, Matthew 9:22, Luke 17:5-6, Romans 4:19-22, Hebrews 11:6
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MoneyWalk 19: The Richness of Contentment

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people are in financial shambles because they try to match other peoples' lifestyles. They're disenchanted with what they have because other people appear to have more than they do. When they're unable to achieve a greater status, they see themselves as failures. When they do achieve natural power, fame, or riches, they're still unhappy because the God-given purpose for their lives isn't fulfilled. Some even regret the occupational or living situation they've put themselves and their families in: seeking success the way the world said it should look.

Stop measuring yourself by your neighbors' lifestyles and ideals of success. Without godly contentment operating in your life you cannot achieve the success that God wants for you, which is the only form of accomplishment and lifestyle that is truly successful. When your eyes and ears are on men, what they have, what they think, and wanting to be like them, you cannot truly thank God for where you are and what you have and you will not make the most out of it because you've positioned your heart and mind in a way that will not listen to God’s direction.

The plan that God has for your life and the things He wants to bless you with may not be the same as other peoples' blessings, yet the life you live and the path that you follow based on God's purpose for you will ultimately be more fulfilling for you. God will be more pleased with you when you following His instructions and guidance.

You must always remember that life in this human body is but a vapor: here today gone tomorrow. In the scheme of eternity it is like a needle in a haystack, a coffee cup in the ocean, or a thimble in a bottomless pit. It is such a short a time in the realm of eternity that it’s almost non-existent. It passes quickly and sometimes abruptly. So you must take care to make sure that you’re in a place where the Lord will say to you when you leave this earth, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Now, enter into the joy of the Lord!”

This can only be had in right relationship with Jesus Christ, which produces the richness of contentment in lifestyle, relationships, finances, and resources. Such contentment is not a couch potato that believes nothing and works at nothing; rather it seeks God will, instruction, and guidance concerning what it should believe and work toward. Then, it is obedient in following Him and waits patiently for the fruit of its godly works even though at first they seem to not produce much and sometimes seem to bring ridicule, suffering, and lack. It never seeks ungodly or ill-gotten gain but waits for God’s law of reciprocity to bring forth a great harvest that it will use in an even greater way to bring glory to God and take the gospel to the world.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Luke 3:14, Philippians 4:11-13, 1Timothy 6:6-10, Hebrews 13:5
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MoneyWalk 18: Being Content

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

To grow spiritually, you must be content with the financial situation that God has placed you in. This doesn't mean you lack ambition to do more than you're now doing, rather it recognizes your appreciation for the present blessings that God has given you, that you consider closer fellowship with Him to be the success you seek, and that you wait on Him to open doors that lead you step-by-step to the fulfillment of your purpose and calling in Christ.

You must understand that what you consider to be the path leading to success may not be the path that the LORD wants you to choose. The blessings that come on His path for you far exceed what you believe you'll get from the path you would choose. You must learn to hear His direction and options for your life. These can be heard only through prayer, reading the word, living by the word, and fellowshipping with the saints.

These disciplines should motivate you to use the following biblical financial principles to manage your current and future income:

1. Working regularly and diligently. During periods of unemployment this means volunteering your time to worthy causes when you’re not beating the street looking for work.
2. Diligently budgeting prior to and through each month to ensure that your expenses are less than your disposable income. This means trusting God to provide what you need (through other people, etc.) when you don’t have money to pay for it.
3. Tithing each pay period.
4. Using excess disposable income to pay off current debt.
5. Refusing to continue using credit / debt to finance desires.
6. Building an emergency reserve account of at least $1,000 then moving to $2,000 and so on.
7. After all bills have been paid and after you’ve saved six months of gross income in your emergency reserve account, investing your disposable income in mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc.

When you delight yourself in Him by loving Him enough to do what He instructed, you'll receive the desires of your heart because the closer you get to God the more His desires for you and mankind permeate your life and become your desires. You'll then have contentment by giving and building wealth from your present income source until you're promoted to a greater position of service to the kingdom of God and other people through entrepreneurship or your employer.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Luke 3:14, Philippians 4:11-13, 1Timothy 6:6-10, Hebrews 13:5-6
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MoneyWalk 17: Should you do it yourself?

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Throughout your life, you'll be faced with situations where you'll have to determine whether it's cheaper to do a job yourself or hire someone else to do it. You've seen sitcoms in which the husband who cannot fix anything constantly tries to perform household repair jobs and his lack of ability and know how end up costing the family more money and time than if he had immediately hired a competent professional to do the job.

This often happens in real life because it takes each person a bit of time and experience to understand how God specifically gifted him or her and/or endowed him or her with the capacity to be skilled in a specific type of work in a manner that allows him or her to perform quality work. Some people are simply not gifted to be great carpenters and truth be told may not be able to build or repair anything. Yet, this doesn’t stop most of us from trying to fix things we don't have the ability to fix because on the front end it seems much cheaper to do the job ourselves and it’s by trial and error that we begin to understand what we are truly gifted to do or are able to become skilled at doing.

The first few times who could blame you for trying to do necessary work yourself. It's natural to press the boundaries of your ability to try and learn new skills when the opportunity presents itself. Also, it is good stewardship to look for less costly ways to obtain goods and services and provide for your family’s needs. However, once historical evidence shows that you're unable to provide the quality workmanship you need to maintain your home and other areas of your life or that ‘doing it yourself’ winds up being more costly in the end, you should search for someone with a proven track record of providing the service you need at the lowest possible price.

So, when any major job needs to be done, you should ask the question, “Should I do it myself?” Your answer should be “NO!!!” when history has shown you’re not gifted to do the work, could not become skilled at doing it, or do not desire to spend necessary time to do quality work in the arena in which you need service. Otherwise, you will become a poor steward of the time and money God entrusted to you because you will waste time and money time trying to complete the task that you already know you cannot skillfully complete. To make matters worse, on top of the money and time you’ll have spent trying to do the job, you will then have to pay someone else to do it who has the necessary gift or skill to provide the service with quality.

Wouldn’t it be better to draw the right conclusion up front, so that this waste of resources does not occur? The right person does not necessarily have to be a high-priced professional. When you’re strapped for cash you can draw from friends and family members who are gifted or skilled in the area of your need or who know someone that is and who can provide you with the service at a cost that fits within your spending limit. If such help does not materialize when you think you need it, you must simply continue to have faith that God will provide all your need in due time and use this mindset to refrain from taking actions that will wind up costing you more money and time than should be spent on the job at hand.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 31:1-11, 1Corinthians 12:18, Ephesians 4:7- 11, James 3:1
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MoneyWalk 16: Utilizing Other Peoples’ Skills

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Have you ever needed carpentry work, but no ability to do it? Or, have you purchased something only to find out later that you paid way too much for it? This has happened to most of us. However, such situations can be remedied by knowing your limitations and seeking out people who have the skills you need to get the job done effectively, efficiently, and less costly than what it costs you to do it.

Don't become a lazy freeloader by relying on other people to provide for you at no cost. You must do the daily things you need to do to survive, live comfortably, and make a positive impact on others in this world. Slothfulness will cost you more lost money than not recognizing where your skills end and someone else's begin.

There may be certain things you know you can't do effectively, such as decorating, shopping, plumbing, or mechanical work. Search for a friend or professional with skills you need who'll do a good job and who'll allow you to pay less than normal until you're financially able to pay full price. Of course, you should obtain at least three estimates and check at least three sources of their work to make sure the person you choose performs good work in the field that you need them for.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 18:18-20, 2 Samuel 12, Matthew 25:27, Luke 5:4-7
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MoneyWalk 15: The Benefits of Bargaining

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Your money will grow by bargain shopping for most items you buy. This consists of finding them for a price that's well below what others normally pay. You can't be a respecter of persons with the mindset, "give me Gucci or give me death."

Your mind must be renewed in Christ to realize that there are items which can meet your present need that are sold or provided for free in places other than the upscale store, designer label, or name brand section that you usually select. For instance, the household cleanser at the dollar store may be just as good as the cleanser you purchase at the well known retailer and blue jeans may contain the same quality no matter which store you purchase them in.

Don't waste money over brand name loyalty when you're in a tight squeeze and do not absolutely believe that a higher price equates to better quality or service. You must be willing to make some purchases at stores in which you did not previously shop to see if they have what you need at a lower price. Though there can be differences in quality and service, in many instances the same materials and workmanship can be found in similar merchandise with different labels.

The money you keep in your pocket thru bargain shopping will make you wealthy over time if you consistently save and invest it over a 10 year or more time horizon. My wife shops about twice per week: mostly window shopping which allows her to know the original price on items and the discounted price as time moves forward during the inventory process. She purchased a pair of curtains with an original price of $90 for $27 dollars. Two weeks later she was able to get a refund on these curtains because she purchased identical curtains at another store for $1.68. We engage the bargain shopping principle by doing what’s stated above and:

1) Continually asking the Lord for His blessing in this area.

2) Knowing that He desires to bless His people above what our individual incomes can afford.

3) Trusting that we don’t necessarily need to have money on hand to cover all of our needs and desires.

4) Becoming knowledgeable about store inventory and clearance practices, keeping her eyes open.

5) Asking for discounts even when the price tags don’t show they are available.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 12:35-36, Proverbs 8:19-21, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 16:1- 12
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MoneyWalk 449: You shall not covet

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

I used to wonder what was meant by the scripture that says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” To my human mind it seemed somewhat strange and in conflict with my wisdom. I certainly was able to take from the scripture the fact that I was not to love money because this attitude could be the start to a downward spiral spiritually and maybe financially. I also was able to understand that I was to make the pursuit of God’s will for my live my utmost desire and goal and forsake any mindset that would cause me to make earning income and creating wealth more important than devotion to my Lord and service to His people. However, I wasn’t able to grasp much more because I thought what does loving money have to do with committing fornication or adultery or cursing your neighbor or most anything other than thievery and related financial crimes.

To be sure, the “root of all evil” language stumped me for a long time until I heard a message about how satan utilized covetousness as the temptation to encourage Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Coveting can be defined as “wanting somebody else’s stuff.” Sure that sly serpent used clever words to trick them into eating the forbidden fruit; however the temptation they allowed to rule them was covetousness because they desired to be as God. They were led to believe that God was holding knowledge and power from them that they could indeed have and that it was all available via the produce of the “Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Satan convinced them that they too could be omnipotent, omniscient, and possibly omnipresent and all powerful because these qualities were not inherently in God. They were in fact produced by that tree. Yes, they were tricked in more ways than one but the root of it all was covetousness. All the evil we see came from satan and then Adam coveting that which could only be God’s. They wanted something that only God Almighty can possess. Only He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omni-powerful. While they could have close fellowship with Him, represent His light in the earth, and righteously manage His possessions to be very fruitful, they could never be these things. Satan tricked them with the same temptation (covetousness) that caused Him to be thrown out of heaven to the earth like a bolt of lightning; he said that he would ascend to the throne of God almighty.”

The love of money is a trunk line from this same root of covetousness that we are commanded to avoid. When we love money we desire to obtain it, hold on to it, and/or spend it on our pleasures more than we desire to please God. This shows up most often in people’s failure to recognize God as their Lord and spend time fellowshipping with Him and his church. Within church circles it shows up most often as people’s failure to tithe and give offerings to help the church spread the gospel message throughout the earth. When you’re too busy to honor and glorify God in the manner He instructed you’re making your utmost priority the pursuit of all those things that represent money and acting as though you sit upon the throne with the ability to provide for yourself and dictate how your life should be lived. Thus, you love money more than you love God and also more than you love your fellow man.

You’re headed for eternal destruction and many times financial hardship on earth when you covet anything other than a relationship with the Lord and daily fellowship with Him. Work, career aspirations, building business, wealth building, caring for family, nor any other situation or endeavor in your life is an excuse that God will accept as a reason for not honoring Him and coveting His treasures to take care of that which you think is important. He doesn’t mind you having access to His manifold treasures, but He desires that these treasures flow into your life as a benefit to you and others from relationship and deep fellowship with Him. His Word is clear, “He withholds no good thing from those who walk upright before Him.” Let His will be your will to decide how to walk out love, work, career, business, wealth building, and ministry and you will avoid being a branch that protrudes from the trunk line of covetousness and avoid the negative earthly and eternal consequences that come to those who condone and perpetuate the root of all evil.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Genesis 3, Exodus 20:17, Psalm 24:1-2, Matthew 6:19-21, 1Timothy 6:10, Revelations 4:11
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MoneyWalk 448: You shall not bear false witness

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Flip Wilson used to say “The devil made me do it.” Many people have the same mentality when it comes to managing their lives and money. They want to take credit for all the good things that happen to them: I earned my degree, I earned this salary, I earned this position, I earned these riches, I earned this fame, I earned this politically powerful position, etc. However, when the result is not good they blame the devil, some other person, or organization (including the government) for their woes.

There is blame that could be placed on some person or entity for some things that are perpetrated on people, however most wrecked financial situations are not a direct result of what someone else did to people, rather they are a direct result of people not following the rules that lead to fruitfulness. I’m not talking about all the things you hear from television and radio pundits about how to succeed, rather I’m talking about the biblical commands and principles that God laid out for your benefit, such as:

1) Confess with all your heart that Jesus is Savior and Lord of your life.

2) Believe and act like God owns everything, including you and your money and He has the right to direct you to use them as He sees fit and that He only does so for your ultimate benefit.

3) Allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten your daily bible study and help you walk by the Spirit instead of fulfilling the lusts (desires) of your flesh.

4) Work as unto the Lord in whatever is your legal / God honoring occupation.

5) Work daily while giving yourself one to two days rest each week.

6) Hone your mental and physical skills and abilities through your work and personal interaction with others.

7) Never think or express the idea that your current income is too little to live on and begin planning for a great future. Father God, His resources, and His ability to provide are greater than your income and your situation. Nothing is impossible for Him, not even taking care of you. Thus, nothing is impossible for you when you are in the Father’s hands.

8) Begin to surround yourself with at least a few savvy friends (Christian brothers and sisters, etc.) who are good stewards (money managers) of the incomes and resources God has given them. There is God honoring safety in the advice of godly counselors.

9) Honor God through your local church fellowship with the tithe and an offering before you give to or pay any other source.

10) Save at least an equal portion in an emergency fund to help cover emergencies: payment of monthly expense during job loss, medical situations, etc.

11) Live within your means by budgeting your income to cover necessities first (food, shelter, clothing, and transportation) and trust God to provide what you really can’t. Then, cover as many other minimum bill payments as possible. If money is left over, then pay it toward either the account with the highest interest rate or the lowest balance account. Mathematically, the first method helps you pay off debts faster and pay less interest overall whereas the second method may give you a psychological boost because you get to see an early victory of paying off an account or two.

12) Work toward totally eliminating debt and living debt free where you don’t purchase anything you do not already have the cash to pay for. If you utilize credit make sure the loan is for an appreciating asset and that your money is earning a higher rate of interest than you’re paying on the loan.

13) Continue to employ these giving, saving, budgeting (disciplined spending) habits and you will reach a point when you are saving so much money each month that you will not have a choice but to invest. So, right now begin learning how the markets work, about the various types of investments available (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, fixed interest investments, etc.), and the lingo used in financial markets and concerning the economy overall. In this way when the time comes, you’ll be prepared to make good investment choices.

One of the great things about this approach to stewardship is that everything that happens to you and for you works out for your good because you love God and are called for His purpose. Therefore, you don’t need to blame anyone for your condition or the world’s condition because you just might be bearing false witness against your neighbor instead of being guided by the Holy Spirit and spending the time necessary to utilize the spiritual and practical principles above to make your life as fruitful as it can be.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 20:16, Proverbs 22:7, Galatians 5:1-2 and 16-17, Jude 5:9
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MoneyWalk 447: You shall not steal

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

We normally think of stealing as taking a possession of material things or ideas belonging to another human without their willing consent. Of course this is the type that we’re most familiar, but interestingly it is not the type of stealing that happens most often.

Stealing from God is the most common type of theft perpetrated by man. To be sure, stealing things from other people is definitely unrighteous. How much more unrighteous is it to steal from God? The scriptures say that God asked the question, “Can a man rob God?” He then answered the question by telling the people that they robbed Him of tithes and offering and told them to prove the truth of His Word by faithfully and regularly giving the tithe so that the religious leaders would be able to use it to serve in a manner that would glorify God, draw people to Him, and care for them as necessary.

God could pose this question and give the correct answer because He is the Creator of everything and thus owns everything. Man only manages possession on earth. He does not own them and will find that when he dies none of the possession he had use of will go with him. It’s all left for someone else to manage after he/she is gone. I’ve never seen a U-Haul make its way to heaven or to hell for that matter.

Thus, we should recognize that God has provided for our need to be met and has given each individual possessions / income to manage and that each person should honor Him by managing these possessions / income in the manner He directed. Unfortunately, we usually manage them in the manner we desire because we hold too tightly to them, don’t really believe that God is the owner of them, and/or believe that he has any standard for how we manage them. Simply studying scripture leads to the realization that each of these mentalities is unrighteous. Your management should be by God’s direction as confirmed in the bible.

Now surely I don’t want to steal any possessions that God has given to another person to manage or that he has allowed to come into their hands. More importantly, I will not steal from Father God: the one person that cares for me more than any human being including my wife, mother, or father. By faith, I will honor Him as He instructed regardless of ridicule by other people for doing so, their failure to do so, and the fact that it looks like I might lack some need or desire if I faithfully tithe and give offerings.

I would follow His instruction regardless of whether I would ever received any earthly benefit from it, yet I know by His Word that eternal blessing awaits those who while on earth manage His possessions in such a way that they are greatly used to lead other people to a relationship with Him thru Jesus Christ and to help them mature to become more like Christ.

Fact is, when you give in this manner prosperity is your earthly and eternal heritage because the following benefits follow those who do not steal from God by withholding the tithe and offerings:

1. God rebukes the devourer of your finances and your soul (spiritually demonic beings with plans to render you useless).
2. He opens the windows of heaven over you to pour out tremendous blessing upon your to help you glorify Him and serve other people.
3. He will not let your fruit rot on the vine. You will be successful and bear much fruit (many good God-led works).
4. People will see that you reside under God’s blessing and will communicate that to others. It will be a platform that you can use to point many people back to Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word in every arena of life.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 20:15, Malachi 3:8, Luke 18:22, Acts 5:3, Revelation 4:11
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