Module 2- Faith for Finances​
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Philippians 4:19, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
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James 1:17, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.”
Around the age of 32, I was married with 1 child at the time. I now have 3 kids, praise the Lord. At the time, I was working for a private Christian university. I didn’t make much money, and we lived in an expensive area. In fact, when my wife and I got married, we had negative income. Over time, I saw the Lord provide for our needs with random financial gifts, promotions, and even side jobs when we needed it. One time I remember that our only car was dying with so many mechanical repairs. I was tired of putting money into an old vehicle. We needed to buy a new car, but we didn’t have money for one. We felt that we needed to take a faith step with our finances. We needed a car! We took out a simple lease for a simple car and believed that the Lord would expand our finances. That same week, we received a financial gift for the price of the down payment, a stipend at church, and my wife got asked to do a simple part time job. All this money covered our car expenses. Go God! This was a miracle. How you live your life today prior to being on financial support will most certainly affect your fundraising process.
This is why God puts missionaries into preparation seasons before sending them. He wants to train them and to prepare them, so they have the faith to succeed. Are you living a life of prayer and intimacy with the Lord already? Do you know how to hear his voice? Do you live a life of radical generosity? If you don’t today, how can you in the future? Right Maybe you make a lot of money, and you haven’t ever had to really trust the Lord with finances. I want to remind you of something. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you make, are you trusting the Lord radically with your finances? You may live in a palace, but are you longing to know him more? Do you know his voice and live a life of radical generosity? The world has an illusion with finances. Let me ask you a question. If you work a job and earn a paycheck, where does your money come from? Who pays your salary? The money comes from the Lord.
Your job is the vessel that is passing on God’s provision to you. Your job is like a middleman. When you step into full-time financial support, you are removing the middleman. But the middleman never was your provider. It’s always the Lord. It doesn’t matter if you are a full-time missionary in India, or you make $200,000 a year at a well-paying job, the Lord is your provider. We like to think we are in control of our salaries. Maybe you think that you earned your money. Maybe you think that you have earned all these degrees, and you have all of this valuable work experience, so this requires a certain income from an employer. I’ve got some news for you. You don’t earn 1 cent apart from the generosity of God. All that income comes from the Lord. Yes, you may have a great resume, but if the Lord didn’t want you to have that money, you wouldn’t get any of it. Let me ask you another question. Let’s say you make $200,000. What is stopping you from making $1,000,000 per year? Another promotion? Another career field? Another degree? No, it’s the Lord.
The Lord releases financial provision. He releases rain from Heaven. If he wanted you to make more, you would make more. If he wanted you to make less, you would make less. As you think about fundraising and your finances, where will your money come from? Is it dependent on your hard work and clever fundraising strategies? No, your support comes from the Lord! I am not saying we don’t earn rewards and provision in life. But what I am saying is that we cannot forget the sovereignty of God in our provision. As you step into the mission field, remember that the Lord is responsible for providing seed for the sewers. If you believe this, this changes your perspective. When we lack finances, we don’t look at outward circumstances, we look to the Lord. We look to our provider.
At the end of the day, our fancy fundraising strategies do not provide. The Lord provides. He is responsible for supplying our needs, regardless of the job we do. The Lord Jesus knows your needs. In fact, he cares more about your finances than you do. He cares more about your spouse and children than you do. He cares more about the food in your belly and the clothes on your back than you do. He cares more about your missionary calling than you do. He cares more about seeing the Lost saved than you do. If it’s God’s will, then it is God’s bill.
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FAITH
If we believe in these truths about provision, then we don’t need to wonder where the money will come from. When the Lord releases a calling over someone’s life, he isn’t worried about how it will be financed. Since he is the provider, he knows he will provide. Often, we want the money first before we act on our missionary calling.
John Wimber used to say that the currency of heaven is faith. And faith is spelled R-I-S-K, risk. If we want to see heaven move and for provision to be released, we must exercise our faith muscles. We must take those steps of faith believing that the Lord will finance what he has spoken.
I sometimes think about my life and what it would look like if I waited for the money before acting in faith. I would not be married because I didn’t have money to get married and be a newlywed. I would not have any children because I never had enough money in my budget to afford a family. I wouldn’t have become a missionary either because I certainly didn’t have the money to do that. If I had waited for the money before acting in faith, I would have missed out on all these major milestones in my life.
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God responds to faith. He is moved when we trust him. Inevitably when God calls someone to do something, we may come to a crossroads financially. We know what his promise is, but we don’t know where the money will come from. If that is you today, I want to encourage you to seek the Lord in what faith step you can take. We must take a faith step across the road of fear and unbelief, believing that the Lord will provide for us. I am not saying that we ignore financial wisdom, budgeting, and basic sense in our decision-making. However, much of what we call financial wisdom is rooted in fear. The world says that you need this much money to do this kind of action. The Lord says that he is Jehovah Jireh, will you trust him?
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When we come to this financial crossroads, we must seek the Lord to see if we are to take a step of faith financially. Maybe that step of faith is a simple one, such as starting to fundraise. Maybe the Lord is asking you to give more money, believing that he will pour into your lap as you are generous. Maybe he is asking you to buy plane tickets and to make plans to move overseas. Maybe he is wanting you to apply to a certain missions agency. Whatever that faith step looks like, we do it knowing that the Lord will provide, and we will not allow the absence of finances to paralyze us in our calling.
Living this type of faith is not just for the brand-new missionary trying to launch out.
Throughout our lives, we will constantly be tested in our faith. If we want to live lives of radical faith, we must be rooted and grounded in the Word, prayer, and a fiery community of radical Believers. This type of faith will be attacked and challenged, especially by certain Christians who are content with loving the world and mediocrity. Like Peter in the Gospels, I want to suggest that you can see the Lord walking on the water in your life. Are you willing to ask the Lord if you can walk to him? I believe there is an invitation over your life to get out of the boat of comfort and safety and to see miracles in all areas of your life. But you must get out of the boat and begin to take those first steps of faith. The beautiful thing in life with Jesus is that we can never truly fail. He will always be there, just like Peter, to grab our hand when we begin to sink under the waves of unbelief and fear. Are you wanting to climb out of the boat?
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Questions
1. I would like you to take some time to process some of the financial challenges, obstacles, or hindrances that you are facing in your life or missions calling.
a. Take some time to seek the Lord and get into his Presence. As you spend time with the Lord, process the following questions or principles.
b. With the challenge in mind, what worldly mindsets, fears, or unbelief are coming up in your thinking?
c.Is the Lord asking you to take a step of faith in your missions calling to see more of Heaven’s resources released over your life?
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2. To stir your faith up more for what the Lord is doing in your life, do you need to make any lifestyle changes? (Think about your prayer life, fasting life, time in the Word, relationships, and how you fellowship with the Lord throughout the day.)