Create Your Own Economy

By Dave Martin

When it comes to their faith and finances, Christians tend to migrate toward one of two extremes. One extreme is the view that I was force-fed as a child—that material possessions are sinful and that, like Mother Teresa, we must all embrace some sort of “vow of poverty” if we ever intend to be close to God. The other extreme is that God wants us to live in complete comfort and ease as we ostentatiously flaunt the material wealth He has bestowed upon us, all so we can incite faith in others.

I don’t buy into either of these two extreme positions. Both views distort the intentions of Scripture and completely miss the heart of God. In the Bible, the people who flaunted their wealth were usually driven by pride and ended up paying a high price for their egotism.

On the other hand, there is absolutely no connection anywhere in the Bible between wealth and sin. The list of prosperous people that God used over the course of about 21 centuries is quite lengthy. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, David, Solomon, Joseph of Arimathea and Barnabas are just a few of the wealthy people God would use to accomplish His purposes in the world.

The connection between material wealth and sin takes place when one’s love for wealth supersedes love for God or supplants God’s purposes for his or her life.


BELIEFS SHAPE THE FUTURE

At the very beginning of human history, before there was sin in the world, God placed Adam in the midst of a veritable gold mine, and God gave him all kinds of enjoyable and needful things like food, work, sleep and sexual intimacy—things that were not sinful in and of themselves because sin was not yet a reality for human beings.

But sin took hold when Adam and his descendants started to make all these “things” that God had given to them more important than God Himself. You see, God designed man so that He could sit on the throne of man’s heart while all of His external blessings were designed to enrich man’s life from the outside. But when man reversed this divine order—moving God to the outside of his life and moving “things” to the throne of his heart—that is when sin became the destructive force that it is today. And that explains why money is a blessing, but why the love of money is an affront to the Lord (see 1 Timothy 6:10).

That being said, I don’t see anything positive that can come out of poverty except maybe a greater appreciation for wealth. And I certainly don’t see why God would allow the world’s most evil people to possess all the wealth that He created for Adam while His most devoted servants suffer under a self-imposed dearth. I don’t see why He would allow godless people who pay Him no mind to prosper while those who serve Him faithfully and obey His laws waste away in deficiency with no ability to raise themselves up.

Of course, the other extreme position is a feeble attempt to combine faith with selfishness and materialism, and this is the theological position that some modern preachers have condoned. The extreme voices that advocate the modern prosperity gospel tell us that God wants us to have all kinds of material riches . . . period! There are no preconditions for these blessings. That’s simply not true.

The Lord wants the best for His children, but His best always involves more than just material satisfaction. So somewhere between these two extremes, there’s a place called “truth,” and I want to help you discover that truth. I want to help you develop a mindset toward your finances that is biblically based, practically achievable and theologically sound. I want to lead you to a healthy understanding of prosperity that can give rise to realistic goals and meaningful results in life.

Most of the objections Christians tend to raise against the idea of prosperity are actually objections to the world’s system for acquiring wealth—not to wealth itself. Wealth in and of itself is a good thing, a godly thing. God created wealth, God blessed Adam with wealth when Adam was perfect and sinless and God has a “system” whereby His people can now tap into the wealth that He provided for them when He created the world.

Wealth is something good that God created for man’s benefit in order to help man achieve the temporal, earthly purposes for which God created him, but it is simultaneously something that can awaken the vilest dispositions of a sinful heart. So, wealth is what we choose to make of it and what we choose to do with God’s instructions regarding its proper use. Like a brick that can be used to build a schoolhouse or a house of ill repute, money has no moral nature; it’s simply one of those “things” that God created for man’s benefit that can simultaneously expose man’s moral nature.

This means, of course, that God doesn’t want us to chase after wealth or take hold of it in ways that violate His moral laws. He doesn’t want us to do sinful things to obtain it, and He doesn’t want the wealth He has entrusted us to take His place on the throne of our hearts. He wants us to pursue wealth for the right reasons, acquire it in the right ways and use it to do the right things.

If we will respect these divine boundaries, wealth is something that God will make available to us in order to help us achieve His predetermined destiny for our lives. He wants us to buy into His system of prosperity, not the world’s system, so we can become who He wants us to be and achieve what He wants us to do in life. He wants us to buy into His system of prosperity, not the world’s system because the world’s approach to economics leads people farther away from Him and fills them with a gnawing sense of emptiness and meaninglessness. He wants us to live according to His “kingdom economy,” not the world’s economy, and, if we do, we will find that our prosperity is not only something He condones; it is a reliable way of living that is not subject to the ups and downs of global economics.

I haven’t met a Christian yet who doesn’t want to prosper under God’s hand of blessing, but let’s never forget the warning the Bible puts forth regarding money: the love of money, not money itself, is the root of all evil. To love money—to place it above God in our hearts and lives—is to invite destruction upon our lives because an unrighteous attitude toward wealth can lead only to sorrow and vanity.

As Paul explained to Timothy, it can cause us to be “pierced . . . through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10, KJV). But if we will allow God to enrich us in His way, according to the tenets of His eternal Word, we can enjoy a godly prosperity that is personally satisfying and financially resilient as we keep Him at the center of our lives. In other words, God’s “system” for prosperity, if followed faithfully, will enable us to avoid sin and steer clear of the topsy-turvy, roller coaster ride of worldly finance that is so often harmful to us spiritually because fear, greed, insecurity or other unseemly motivations drive it.

By believing and implementing the biblical laws of prosperity, you will be able to prosper financially. Your life will begin to look different from those prospering through the world’s system because you won’t just prosper financially, but mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually and relationally. That’s what the God-kind of prosperity can do for you.

The word translated prosper in the Bible is a word that goes far beyond the realm of finance. It’s a word that speaks to a person’s overall well-being because God wants us to prosper in every aspect of our lives to such an extent that it positively affects others. Poverty can’t do that. Poverty repels people, but a lifestyle of living under God’s blessing and enjoying God’s provision can make an impact on the people who are analyzing our lives.


THE BIBLE SAYS MORE THAN CHRISTIANS THINK

Unfortunately, no believer can receive the benefits of a specific promise from God unless that believer is first aware that such a promise exists because if it’s in the Bible, we have to believe it before we can receive it. Furthermore, God’s promises of prosperity are only half-baked into a lot of Christians, even those who are aware of them.

Many have been taught extreme doctrines, have built a whole theology from an isolated scripture, or are unable to move Scripture from the mind and into the heart. The ignorance (lack of knowledge and understanding) existing in the body of Christ today when it comes to the subject of divine prosperity disheartens me. And the ignorance existing among church leaders and Bible teachers is even more disturbing. It is costing us individually as we unnecessarily struggle through life, and it is costing us corporately as our churches and ministries are forced to suffer financial lack while the world perishes before our very eyes.

God has already given us His best. He gave us His best when He gave us Jesus, so why would He deprive us now of all the good things He has made for us? Why would He deprive us now of all the good things He designed to help sustain us and propel us forward in life and ministry? Why, in the beginning, would He fill the world with such wealth for Adam and Eve but choose now to keep His people in poverty and want? Why would He fill the world with so many treasures and so many answers to mankind’s needs (like medical remedies and natural resources) but leave it to the people who hate Him the most to discover those things, harness those things and utilize those things to create wealth? The obvious answer is: He wouldn’t.

God’s gift of His Son serves as an illustration of just how much He wants to bless us. It serves as an illustration of God’s generous attitude toward the people He loves. God’s goodness benefits Him as much or more than it benefits us because God has made us to be a reflection of Himself. He has made us to be walking, talking advertisements for the Christian life.

Obviously, there will be seasons in our lives when God will allow us to be tested or endure certain kinds of trials, including financial trials, and the Lord will allow these seasons of testing in order to nurture faith in our lives or achieve His purposes through our lives. But generally speaking, God wants us to live under the shadow of His blessing and to walk in His prosperity, and we need to know that about Him if we ever intend to rise above our current levels of achievement. If God intends to bless the world through us, we are going to need a lot more resources than we currently have at our disposal in order to impact a world of eight billion people in need.


MONEY ISN’T EVIL

Do you know why so many unbelievers prosper financially? Whether they know it or not, they follow a lot of God’s economic laws. Obviously, some unbelievers are bent on acquiring their wealth through illegal or unethical means. Some submit false insurance claims, cheat on their taxes or sell stolen goods to unwary customers. But not all prosperous people are shady characters. God’s eternal principles of economics work when we implement them—whether we attribute them to God or not. And that means that if they work for sinners, they can work for believers, too, because they are eternal principles designed to work for us if we work with them.

Unfortunately, many Christians just don’t know the eternal principles of economics scattered throughout God’s Word, and Christians can’t activate the principles they do not know. These eternal principles of economics have changed my life and the lives of countless others, past and present.

I realize the subject of prosperity can be unsettling for many people because some of us have been around long enough to see the damage extreme teachings have done. I also know current events can have a real impact on this subject as we face the realities of an economic climate that is both discouraging and frightening. And I understand the skepticism about another faith-based message that promises to use the Bible to teach them about financial affluence and a righteous way of attaining wealth.

But let’s get real here: money plays an enormous role in our daily lives, and it’s the main reason we get up and go to work each day. When we’re not making money, we’re spending money, trying to save money or managing our money so we can afford the things we need. Money is an important part of our lives, and money impacts just about every aspect of our lives. It also impacts virtually every aspect of church life and ministry. And that’s why God wants to be personally involved in our finances. It’s why He is so concerned about us having a proper relationship with our money. Something that consumes that much of our time and that much of our attention will demand His hands-on involvement because He wants us to have enough money to live without constant stress, and He wants us to have enough money to pursue the visions and dreams He has placed in our hearts for ourselves, our families, our businesses and our churches.

If money—how much we have, how much we need, how we make it and how we use it—is so important to God, then it should be important to us, too. And since the Bible has all the information we will ever need to make wise decisions and live fulfilling lives, I believe we should look there, in the holy Scriptures, for the timeless wisdom we require when it comes to our finances. Besides, although money can’t buy us happiness, neither can poverty. But money sure can solve a lot of our earthly problems.

Hundreds of Bible verses address this vital life concern, and Jesus had more to say about money during His earthly ministry than any other subject except the subject of love. Moreover, God knows the devil preys upon our ignorance. God knows Satan does his best work in the empty spaces of our uninformed minds, where there is no biblical knowledge to offset his lies. The world sows its seeds of doubt and skepticism in those same empty spaces.

So let’s fill those spaces with God’s truth. Let’s fill them with God’s light. Let’s fill them with a vast reservoir of God’s promises concerning His desire to bless our finances and enrich our earthly lives, and let’s fill them with an understanding of the Lord’s requirements for living a life that is marked by His favor.

If we, as Christians, can get our thinking right when it comes to the subject of money, we can get our believing right. And if we can get our believing right, we can get our behaviors right. And if we can get our behaviors right when it comes to our personal finances, we can plot the course for our own lives and determine their quality and outcome so that the rest of our lives will be the best of our lives.

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Dave Martin, America’s No. 1 Christian success coach, is a coach, pastor, mentor, inspirational speaker and business leader with a mission to communicate the biblical principles of success. Dave is a keynote speaker at the Get Motivated Seminars, America’s largest business seminar. Over 1 million listeners in 80-plus countries participate in Dave’s award-winning Forbes top-10 podcast called Success Made Simple.