True Prosperity
by Jim Durkin, Sr. with James Jankowiak
SECTION 1
The Prosperity Perspective
Chapter 1
Prosperity Is for You...Today!
God has good news for you and me! He wants us to experience complete prosperity in our
lives: to enjoy good health, emotional well-being, peace of mind, and a level of financial success
that gives us freedom from the fears of old age and death. In fact, God wants us to be so
successful that we pass on both spiritual and material legacies to our children and grandchildren.
This is the kind of success the Apostle John was talking about when he wrote to his friend,
Gaius. “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in health, just as your soul
prospers (3 John 2).” Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, echoed this godly desire when he
observed that “a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children (Proverbs 13:22).”
Throughout the Bible God emphasizes that prosperity, peace and a joyous, loving outlook on life
are His will for us.
In this book we’ll explore the manifold facets of how to succeed in life God’s way, and
we’ll lay out a step-by-step plan on how every one of us—no matter how rich or poor, educated
or uneducated—can make prosperity the hallmark of his life. There are just two requirements:
Know what the Bible says, and do it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Joshua, that great
Israelite leader who led his people in the battles that won them the Promised Land, gathered the
12 tribes before him on the eve of their journey out of the desert wilderness. They were poised
to cross the flood-swollen Jordan River into enemy-occupied territory that God had told them
would be their inheritance. Joshua said to the assembled tribes, “This book of the law shall not
depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to
do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you
will have success (Joshua 1:8).”
Circumstances have changed since Joshua’s time, but not God’s heart nor His methods. As
we discover God’s will for us in the principles in His Word and do them, divine prosperity will
fill our lives. This is what salvation is really all about. It’s no magical formula, or some “Three
Easy Steps to Wealth.” But just as surely as the Hebrews went from slavery in Egypt to freedom
in Israel, so also as we follow the godly directions in this book, we will come into the prosperous
freedom of God’s kingdom.
Looking at salvation from this angle, we understand that when Jesus Christ suffered and
died on Calvary’s cross to pay the penalty of eternal separation from God that all of us as sinners
deserve, He didn’t die just so we could go to heaven. Those who repent of their sinful lives and
believe what the Bible says about Jesus and who follow in His ways will spend eternity in the
pure loving presence of the Almighty God. It is also certain that at this very moment God has
already given us the potential and power to obtain and fully enjoy the best this present life has to
offer. Salvation encompasses both of these views in the sense that it is both here and hereafter:
We are saved eternally as we walk in Jesus’ footsteps, and we will receive God’s material and
spiritual blessings on this earth if we obey Him. As understood by the Israelites and by the men
who wrote the New Testament, salvation means complete deliverance, the setting us free from
the bondage that chains us to failure in this life and ultimate failure in eternity. It means
PRESENT victory, aid, prosperity, deliverance, health, help and welfare for everyone who puts
biblical principles of success into action and continues in them until he sees results.
When St. John said, “I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in health...,” he
knew that the man who merely accepts Christianity as a safe conduct pass into the afterlife is a
man who in this life will lead a dull and frustrated existence of never achieving his full potential.
“Prosper,” as John used it, means “to succeed in business affairs.” The apostle wanted us to
know that God does not wish us to be poor. He does not want us to think of poverty as a
blessing or sign of holiness that shows Christians are more concerned with “spiritual” affairs
than with the physical world, or that somehow, business is not quite Christ-like. As a matter of
fact, everywhere in the Bible poverty is a curse. The implication of poverty is that you’re in
economic bondage; you’re literally scraping to keep body and soul together. This is hardly the
area for the development of spirituality. But start to prosper in business affairs and soon you’re
freed from being a taker to being a giver, from looking for how to get something to looking
where to bless others with your abundance. You’re able to meet the needs of your family and to
be free of the biblical stigma that says if a man doesn’t provide for his own, especially his own
household, he is worse than an unbeliever (I Timothy 5:8). You’re able to be that good man who
stores up an inheritance for his children’s children. You’re able to tithe to the church, give to the
poor and needy, and contribute to the work of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the world.
This is the kind of economic prosperity God has for us and that John prayed for. Christians are to
help the poor, not be poor.
You’ll notice that John connects prosperity to the soul, “just as your soul prospers.”
Another way to state the idea is this: In the measure that your soul prospers you’ll experience
good health and economic success. When we become Christians our spiritual natures are made
alive and we have a direct communication with God. Yet, despite the fact that we’re now
spiritual beings, new creatures in Christ Jesus—we still have the same old bodies and the same
old soul natures. We’ll receive the complete salvation of our bodies when Jesus returns and
transforms our mortal frames into eternal, spiritual bodies. But just because the full salvation of
our bodies is a future event doesn’t mean that God wants us to suffer disease and sickness now.
Quite the contrary, by the abuse and beatings Jesus suffered before His death we ARE healed—
not will be, but are. As humans we are still subject to old age and death, but barring some
special intention on God’s part, His will is that we live long and peaceful lives, and die in
contented old age, having fulfilled the purpose in life for which He created us. Sickness, like
poverty, is the result of sin’s influence on the earth. It is a curse, not something God sends to us
to test our faith and endurance though he may ALLOW Satan to afflict us for a time.
So then, why do diseases and illness strike Christians? As God said through the prophet
Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Once we accept Jesus as the ruler and
guide of our lives we have only embarked on a long journey. As we cooperate with the Holy
Spirit’s work in our lives all the old sinful habits, thought patterns, and emotional reactions that
so adversely affect our health will start to change. Increasingly we will reflect the attitudes and
behavior of Jesus. Instead of being self-centered takers, we become helpers and givers, and
health springs up strongly within us. We do what St. Paul told the believers at Philippi: Work
out our salvation with fear and trembling. This takes knowledge of God’s will for our lives.
However, I must add that taking care of our bodies, eating the right foods, getting proper
exercise and sleep, are also part of God’s will.
Nevertheless, we must pay special attention to our souls, the seat of our emotions, our wills,
and our minds (intellects). The posture of our souls plays a great part in our physical health, and
both affect our economic life. Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us to present our bodies... our
whole beings... to God as our REASONABLE service to Him (Rom 12:1,2). Previously we were
serving ourselves (or, more correctly, sin), doing what our minds told us to do, or what gratified
our emotions. The first step after accepting Jesus as the ruler of our lives is to give our whole
beings to fulfilling God’s purpose in creating us. He tells us, “do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Our minds without the guiding hand of
Jesus are twisted, kinked, fouled up and opposed to God. The Bible says the carnal mind is at
enmity with God, that the person who has not surrendered his life to Jesus has an outlook that is
not in harmony with God’s plan for total prosperity. Until that selfish, sin-oriented mind is
replaced by a mind dedicated to defining and doing good as God spells it out in the Scriptures,
there is no way that man can prosper.
Moreover, changing our thinking process from a negative, grasping attitude to a positive
loving one is not sufficient. Our emotions are included in our souls, and they greatly affect our
minds, and can in some cases dominate us if they are not in proper relationship to the rest of our
nature. Many people with so-called mental illnesses are suffering from severe emotional
imbalances. Others are strongly emotional people. Their emotions rule them the way that the
mind rules the lives of extremely intellectual people.
These emotion-dominated people are experiencing levels of stimulation that God never
meant for us to sustain. They constantly stimulate themselves emotionally through practicing
dangerous activities or illicit forms of sexual behavior or they continuously give free reign to
destructive feelings. For instance, instead of loving others, they hate. Instead of forgiving, their
anger turns into long-term wrath that alienates them from their fellows and eventually
completely pollutes them. Inside, they are bitter, warped, living proof that once a root of
bitterness springs up in a person it can defile many.
The result? Their health breaks down. Wrong emotions like anger, hatred, stress,
bitterness, envy and jealousy generate ulcers, high blood pressure, event heart attacks, skin
diseases, arthritis, gastric problems, among others. Viruses and germs supposedly cause a large
number of diseases, but why is it that 10 people can be exposed to the same microbes at the same
time and some will get sick and others won’t, no matter how often they are exposed? I believe
that part of the answer lies in the fact when a man’s emotions are wrong, or when his mind is in a
negative state, he is weakened and much more susceptible to many kinds of illnesses than would
be the case normally. In other words, many people are disease- or accident-prone not so much as
a result of some hereditary weakness but as a consequence of how they think and respond to life.
In view of this, the Holy Spirit inspired John to write to Gaius, “I pray that in all respects
you may prosper....” You’ll note the Bible says, “in all respects,” or as the King James Version
puts it, “above all things.” God emphasizes that He wants our spirits, our minds, emotions, wills,
and bodies to come into a harmonious balance in which we are no longer dominated by sinful or
selfish impulses but by our desire to follow His prosperity program for our lives. The key, as I
mentioned earlier, is persevering in doing the Word of God. Jesus said it succinctly, when He
says, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” and you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32).
We should seek freedom: Freedom from poverty, ill health, the fear of death and the power
of sin. Freedom to be the prosperous, fulfilled men and women God created us to be. Freedom
from our baser desires and thoughts. Freedom to think godly thoughts and to do the Creator’s
will, which is always in our eternal best interest. What God is saying is that He wants us to
prosper in this total sense of salvation. We are to have healthy bodies, sound minds, a deep and
wide range of positive emotions, free wills coordinated with the will of God, and economic
success. Above all, our spirits are to be in peace, knowing that we are children of the Living
God and destined for eternal life.
I realize this is a rather sketchy picture of the prosperous person, but I’ve done it this way
for two reasons. First, all the details of what I’ve presented here in seed form will be amplified,
explained, and added to other principles for success in the following chapters of this book. You
should begin now to apply this sketch, or blueprint, to your situation. As you learn more details
about how to prosper, you can incorporate them in your basic framework.
Second, I’ve demonstrated that prosperity and success must be seen in the context of the
whole man because most of us think of them only in terms of economic growth. Satan
constantly promotes the idea that “money equals happiness.” By contrast, God wants us to have
enough of the world’s goods not to build our own little kingdoms, but to extend His. He wants
us to have enough, and enough to give. In His mind, economic success is integrated into a plan
for well-being on every level of life. Monetary success in itself is no assurance at all of true
prosperity, though Satan would have us believe the two are the same. The Bible clearly reveals,
“The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered
away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang (I Tim 6:10).” The problem is
not money per se, but desiring, longing for, loving, money. We are not to desire money; this
leads to ruin. We are to desire God’s will for our lives.
There are many who have money, yet they are anything but prosperous. Their lives are in
shambles; their relationships with others are destructive. They have built no sense of family in
their homes or strong friendships with their associates. They know nothing of the true meaning
of life. And when family, friends, health, and peace of mind desert them, they find that hard
cash is cold comfort. No wonder so many of these people become twisted recluses in their old
age or become mean and vicious people, or take their own lives.
Everywhere the Bible warns us against pursuing riches or trusting in wealth. This does not
mean—as both non-Christians and Christians often believe—that following Jesus means you
should be poor. Satan has greatly distorted the truth in this area. Yes, God did make the poor of
this world rich in faith with the idea that once they came into His kingdom and put their faith to
work they would become successful. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness; and all these things (the material needs of life) shall be added unto you (Mat
6:33).” Does this mean that as Christians we now are to stand quietly by hoping the Lord
provides us with the bare minimum to remain alive as “blessed poor”? A gospel like that is not
good news. It would be bad news for the hundreds of millions looking for a way out of
economic chaos and its attendant worry. So to dispel the satanic influences of the “God will
provide even if we do nothing” idea that tries to pass itself off as faith, the apostle James tells us,
“Faith without works is dead.” Paul underscores this by saying we “are created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” These good
works include providing for the poor, the sick, the lame, the widows and the orphans, for the
support of ministers of the Gospel, and for extending the work of evangelism throughout the
world. How could we do this if God’s will is that we be poor? Then we would be the ones in
need of help.
On the other hand, I am not saying that Christians should heap up riches. The Bible says,
“Let your moderation be known unto all men.” I make this point because the Word of God
plainly states that physical, material blessings are part of God’s plan, but are not a goal in
themselves. They’re the result of having right goals. The Book of Proverbs observes, “Give me
neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion, lest I be full and deny Thee
and say, “Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God
(30:8-9).” It may be the warped views of poverty and riches entered the Church during the
Roman persecutions when many of the believers were poor and despised. Perhaps ministers
began to adapt their preaching to circumstance rather than God’s eternal truth, saying that
poverty was God’s will for the people. In any event, the tradition dogged the Church during the
Middle Ages, and was possibly amplified by the religious orders that lauded vows of voluntary
poverty and celibacy as a path to increased spirituality. In addition, a number of Scriptures, if
not taken in proper context, seem to indicate that being poor is acceptable, even desirable. St.
Paul tells us that God chose the foolish things of the world, the weak, the base, and the things
that are not. Jesus says, “Blessed are ye poor,” and “Ye have the poor with you always.”
Western thinking has philosophized these and other Scriptures into a “richness or spirit” doctrine
that minimizes the fact that Jesus and the New Testament writers also were seriously concerned
about seeing the saints prosper materially and financially.
Following that wrong lead, some preachers today make a distinction between carnal
blessings and spiritual blessings. Yet there was no such division in the Jewish mind. To the
Jew—and Jesus and the apostles were Jews—godly prospering meant only one thing: A man
would enjoy both spiritual well-being and material success. Health was part of the blessing God
promised the Hebrew nation; so were abundant harvests, increased herds and flocks, money to
lend to other nations, and many other goods as mentioned in Deuteronomy, Chapter 28. To me,
as to the Israelite nation that received the Word of God directly, a man’s spiritual blessings and
his material ones, his spiritual work and his material job, form a whole. Ideas like the minister or
pastor is full-time in the service of God but the working man isn’t, are not correct in my
perspective. To the spiritual man all things are spiritual. A man’s whole life is his ministry. To
be prosperous today is the same as it was in Jesus’ day: a harmonious blending of spiritual and
material blessings. After blessing with material prosperity those in the Old Testament who did
His will (and there are wonderful examples like Job, who was the greatest man in the East before
his afflictions, and to whom God restored double both in material goods and children after his
trials) God did not suddenly change His mind in the Church Age and decide that being poor was
the mark of His favor. Indeed not! Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of
Lights, and in Him there is no variableness. Material prosperity is still a blessing just as in
Joshua’s day. Financial success is not to be separated from all the other spiritual blessings. All
are part of God’s care for us. You might as well say (following the “poor is God’s will” school)
that good health is a carnal matter because it is only for the physical body and we are really
spiritual beings.
Another example of the kind of thinking that has clouded the truth about Biblical economic
matters and spiritualized Jesus’ basic intention is the misuse of Luke 6:38 where Jesus says,
“Give and it will be given to you; a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,
they (men) will pour into your lap. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt
to you in return. Notice the financial movement here. Yet, if you hear this verse in a sermon it
will probably be an offering appeal, the gist of which is “Give money to the church, and God will
bless you.” If Satan cannot get us to disregard this verse altogether he will try to get us to take it
in the spiritualized context instead of how Jesus meant it. As you can readily see, Jesus was not
talking about God blessing us if we give money to the church. He was talking about our
transactions with other men. He said men...not God... would pour into our laps if we gave to
men. Of course, the principle applies to our dealing with out Heavenly Father too, but the point is
that we have in this verse a very practical instruction about the right attitude and right use of
money and other material resources. If I want to receive from men according to the law of
increase I must learn to be a practitioner of giving. This is just one of the extremely important
Bible principles for prosperity that we will put in proper context in this book. Meanwhile this
verse serves to show us that despite Satan’s attempts to fool Christians and others into
spiritualizing the financial teachings of the Word of God, or into dismissing them altogether as
too “carnal” or “lacking in faith,” the truth is that God made us to relate to the physical world in
a very real way. If we have noting of this world’s goods, we are woefully limited in what we can
do to help others or to develop our own gifts and talents to the fullest.
God knows we need food to eat, clothes to keep us warm, and a house in which to live, and
it is His good pleasure to give us these things. He knows that without them we would have no
contentment (unless He gave us special grace as in times of persecution), and that we would be
fearful about the future, about where the next dollar is coming from. So when God calls the poor
into His kingdom He does not want them to stay that way, or have just enough to get by. He
wants them saved in all areas of their being. The Bible always views the man of God from a
position of prosperity, from a giving, caring, helping position. We are not to pursue after riches.
If we come into the Kingdom of God with this world’s wealth we are not to feel guilty, but to
learn to be wise administrators of what is, in the final analysis, God’s wealth. If we come in
poor, we are not to wallow in poverty. With this understanding, we are on our way to
deliverance from every kind of spiritual and economic bondage into the glorious freedom of
divine prosperity—into the freedom to develop and use our full potential to experience and serve
in the Kingdom of God right here on this earth. This truly is God’s Good News for us today!
Chapter 2
Blessing versus Cursing
If God wants mankind to be totally prosperous, why is it that we live in a world of
poverty—a world of want, wickedness, and desperation in which 15 percent of the earth’s
population controls over 75 percent of its wealth, and in which every year millions of human
beings literally starve to death or die from debilitating disease that would hardly affect wellnourished bodies?
The answer is sin. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in a perfect environment
free from death and disease. Then pride, ambition, and disobedience led the first couple to sin
against their Maker. They listened to Satan instead of to God, the devil wrestled control of this
planet from them, and God cursed the earth. The creator said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground
because of you: In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall
grow for you: and you shall eat the plants of the field: by the sweat of your face you shall eat
bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to the
dust you shall return.(Gen 3:17-19).”
“The wages of sin is death.” But death is not just a physical matter. Death enters the human
experiences on every level. Being hated or friendless is social death. Not having money for
food, housing or clothes is economic death. Worry, anxiety, fears, and phobias are emotional
and psychological death. Sickness is a taste of death. So it is that our finiteness confronts us at
every turn, and every human who does not know the redeeming and rejuvenating power of Jesus
Christ lives in constant fear of the consequences of God’s curse upon the land. A man can deny
God; he can deny sin; he cannot deny death. The curse is there whether he admits it or not.
Jesus, of course, is the conqueror of death, and he guarantees eternal life—and that
abundantly—to all who follow Him. Once again, slavery to sin and death entered the world
through Adam and liberty came through Jesus. As we follow Him we are free to be all that God
created us to be.
In short, the blessings of God on those who obey Him are infinitely greater in scope and
power than even the most devastating curse. We who have been born into the kingdom of God
are no longer subject to perdition, but are heirs to every blessing and promise written in the
Bible. The problem is that because we sometimes do not keep the “if” clauses in the Scriptures,
we fail to receive the blessings. This does not mean God’s Word is not true, or that the Bible is
some quaint old volume with no power. On the contrary, it means we are either ignorant of
God’s requirements or Satan has deceived us into believing something other than the truth. For
example, we often hear mentioned Jesus’ promise, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall
make you free (John 8:32).” When that does not happen the way we expect—perhaps we are
still chained to debts or illness, or to torturous fears—we think maybe the Bible really is not
talking about prosperity, at least in this life. That is where the “if” clause comes in. We will
know the truth and it will make us free, but the full context of our Savior’s statement is this:
“Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word,
then you are truly disciples of Mine: and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free’
(John 8:31-32).” Every one of God’s special blessings is conditioned on the fact that we do what
he tells us. The simple reason is that His plan for our lives is superior to any we could devise for
ourselves.
Now let’s look at a remarkable portion of the Old Testament’s Book of Deuteronomy.
Chapter 28 could be titled, “The Blessings and Cursings of God.” It is one of the most concise
descriptions of God’s view on prosperity ever presented. There is no distinction here in God’s
mind between spiritual blessings and material ones. It is as if God were saying, “To the spiritual
man, all things are spiritual.” Likewise, these verses clearly show how man, by denying God,
actually brings upon himself the curses that follow those who think themselves capable of ruling
their own lives without divine help. As we read parts of this chapter, let us remember that
though these blessings and cursing were given to the Hebrew nation, they are in a sense universal
in their application. That is because the “If” clause of verses one and two is as true today as it
was to the Israelites three millennia ago: “Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord
your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I [Moses] command you today, the
Lord your God will set you high above the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall
come upon you and overtake you, you will obey the Lord your God.”
This is no different than what Jesus told the men and women who believed Him. It is no
different than what the inspired New Testament writers told us—the church: “If you obey...”
“Today if you hear His voice...” Prosperity as we have defined it—good health, sound mind,
psychological and emotional wellbeing, ample financial resources to cover all necessary
expenses and to give, and freedom from the fear of sickness and death—depends on this
obedience. As we obey, we will not have to look for blessings. They will overtake us. God
Himself will shower them on us!
With that in mind, let us look more closely at Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy:
1.
“Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to
do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high
above all the nations of the earth.”
2.
“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey
the Lord you God.”
3.
“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.”
4.
“Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and
the offspring you your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.”
5.
“Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.”
6.
“Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go
out.”
7.
“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you one way and shall
flee before you seven ways.”
8.
“The Lord will command the blessings upon you in your barns and in all that you
put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.”
9.
“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself as He swore to you, if
you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in His ways.”
10. “So all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the
Lord: and they shall be afraid of you.”
11. “And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body,
and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the
Lord swore to your fathers to give you.”
12. “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, and to give rain to
your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many
nations, but you shall not borrow.”
13. “And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you only shall be
above, and you shall not be underneath, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord
your God, which I charge you today to observe them carefully.”
14. “And do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the
right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”
15. “But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do
all His commandments and His statues which I charge you today, that all these curses shall
come upon you and overtake you.”
16. “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.”
17. “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.”
18. “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the product of your ground, the
increase of your herd and the young of your flock.”
19. “Cursed shall you be when you come in...” (There follow 49 more verses of the
curses of God on those who fail to keep His commandments.)
You will notice verse one says “diligently obey”, showing us the desire we must have to
obey God’s Word. To experience prosperity we have to WANT TO HEAR God’s word, and we
have to WANT TO DO it.
Then in verse two God promises that as we do what He requires He will make sure the
blessings overtake us. This is important. We do not see the blessings at once. We begin by
doing the Bible’s directions. We start down the path of practicing God’s will as best we
understand. We do not see anything in particular at first. But we have made those initial moves,
and we believe that because God says He will prosper us the blessings will overtake us as we
continue on.
The Book of Malachi, Chapter 3, repeats this idea that we first act on what God tells us to
do, and afterwards we receive the blessing. Verse 10 says, “’Bring the whole tithe into the
storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of
Hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the window of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until
there is no more need.’” We make a move now, and God opens the windows of heaven and
pours out a blessing. It takes some time for those blessings to fall down to us. The point is
THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY. In our minds, we must see them coming. I often stop what I am
doing for a minute or two to meditate on the fact that even now God is moving circumstances in
this world for my benefit. I know that because I have prayed and have acted according to God’s
will. His blessings will meet me at precisely the best moment for my well-being. Our sovereign
and intelligent God is moving in both time and eternity to produce blessings.
As we examine the different blessings in Deuteronomy 28 we notice how fully God covers
the human experience: Blessings in the city, blessings in the country, blessings in the form of
children, blessings of abundance in the increase of herds, and in provisions. This is hardly
getting by—this is true prosperity and provision for the future.
Verse 6 says, “Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you
go out.” Our very movements are under God’s care, and He will make our days joyful. In Verse
7, we are assured that the enemies who come after us will be defeated. These two verses together
are a beautiful assurance from our Heavenly Father that we are completely under His protective
care. We never have to go anywhere in a state of fear: Will the airplane crash? Will the boat
sink? Will the children get run over by a car if I let them play outside? We are not worried
because we know from these and other verses God keeps us alive, and no man can kill the man
God has willed to live. There is a time when God will end our sojourn on this earth, but we do
not have to fear that time. When we go out from our earthly homes for the last time, it will be
according to God’s perfect plan, and if we understand it correctly it will be a blessing for us and
those around us.
As we read on we find that God will bless everything we put our hands to, and that “the
Lord will establish us as a holy people to Himself (v. 9). We have seen His promises of material
and emotional prosperity, and now He tells us He wants us to have spiritual prosperity also. And
to make sure we understand just how serious He is about making us successful, He repeats the
blessings He has prepared for us. He also repeats the “if” clause two more times: “If you will
keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways (vs.9)” and “If you will
listen to the commandments of the Lord your God.... and do not turn aside from the words which
I command you today. (vs. 13-14).” Only afterwards does He enumerate the curses.
Our security is in Jesus and doing His will. On the other hand, if we disobey God, the
curses will come upon us. We will have left God’s protective love, and thrown ourselves at the
mercy of the Satanically-dominated world system. That is a dangerous move because no human
being without Jesus Christ is stronger than sin. Remember, sin--in essence--is going contrary to
the purpose of God, and death is its wages. The curses of verse 15 through 68 of Deuteronomy
Chapter 28 are exactly that: a living death through financial and social ruin, bad health,
emotional instability, a mind plagued by fears, and a lack of God’s loving presence. On a
national scale this leads to the degradation and disappearance of a country.
In one sense, these curses should not concern us because our aim is not to disobey God, but
to obey Him and reap long-term blessings. It may seem the wicked “prosper” without obeying
God, but their success is transitory and unreal.
For example, a man went on a tour of a large bank where tellers were being trained how to
count money rapidly and how to tell counterfeit bills from real ones.
“I suppose you have to study a lot of fake bank notes to be able to catch all the tricks of the
counterfeiters,” the man said to a bank officer.
“We really don’t bother with bogus bills at all,” the banker replied.
“Oh no?” asked the man, somewhat unbelieving, “Then How do you train your tellers?”
“We have them handle thousands and thousands of real bills,” the banker replied. “They
know real money so well that when a fake bill comes through their hands, they spot it
immediately because it feels different.”
So it is with the blessings and cursing. When you practice God’s will, blessings come your
way. Concentrate on them the way a teller concentrates on good bank notes. Give your life to
walking in the blessings. That way you won’t have to concern yourself with the cursings. Then,
if you see the wicked apparently successful, you will know that though they don’t obey God and
yet seem to have everything this life has to offer, their prosperity is no more real than a bundle of
counterfeit $100 bills. Those bills may look good and even pass for the real thing, but in the end
they will be discovered, taken out of circulation and burned. God has made it very clear. There
is His way that leads to blessings and prosperity; and the world’s way that leads to cursing and
death. There is no in-between. There is no way that is genuine and eternally fulfilling but God’s
way. You must be convinced of this and you must be convinced that God’s heart is that blessing
should overtake you personally, and that He wants to open the windows of heaven and pour out
gifts upon you. As this reality is taking root in your heart, let’s take a look at some of the
hindrances... the world, the flesh, and the devil... that try to block you from building a secure and
lasting home for total prosperity in your life.
Chapter 3
Poverty or Prosperity?
God does not want you to be a failure. He does not want your life in any emotional or
mental shambles. He does not want you to believe that poverty is the lot for Christians. But
poverty will dog you if you don’t quite believe prosperity can be yours. You must begin asking
the Holy Spirit to guide you into a proper understanding of the Bible, and began doing what He
shows you. Abundance, blessing and prosperity will overtake you. In short, the Word of God—
put into practice—is God’s formula for successful living. There is no place in God’s economy
for unbelief, or poverty or wretchedness. We must eliminate our loser mentalities so the allencompassing richness of God’s provision for our lives can overtake us.
However, make no mistake about it. The same way that misguided Christians tried to
convince you that being poor was God’s plan for His people, and the same way this world’s
corrupt system tries to teach you constantly that only the rich get richer unless some smart or
lucky person hits the economic jackpot. False ideas about God and His plan for your life are
constantly bombarding you. For that reason I’d like us to examine in depth some of the most
pertinent verses in the Bible that deal with poverty and riches. We need faith for prosperity, and
that faith comes as we see exactly what God’s position on poverty and being poor is, what His
will is regarding wealth and riches, and what His solutions are for a balanced life. God has much
to say about this, and following His will leads unquestionably to complete and godly fulfillment.
Let’s start with poverty.
The first Bible reference is in the context of one of the greatest success stories of all times:
Joseph, the son of a wandering Hebrew herdsman, is sold into slavery by his brothers and ends
up in Egypt, the most powerful country of its time. Everything he does for his various masters
prospers, and despite adversity and setback, he eventually becomes the highest official in the
country, second only to the Pharaoh. The hard times strike the earth, and Joseph’s brothers come
to Egypt seeking food, not knowing he is still alive and that he is the one who devised and
administers the storage program that saves the Egyptians from mass starvation during a sevenyear famine. Joseph eventually reveals himself to his family, and then in Genesis 45:5-11 makes
a remarkable statement, “And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold
me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life...” Then in verses nine to eleven, he says,
“Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘this says your son Joseph, “God has me lord of
all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. And you shall live in the land of Goshen. There I will
also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, lest you and your household
and all that you have been impoverished.’” Obviously if God esteemed poverty higher than
prosperity, He could have left Jacob and his sons to starve in Canaan.
We have already seen that as we do God’s will—and Joseph was a man who did so—the
blessings overtake us, and our heavenly Father moves circumstances to favor us. In this case,
God used Joseph to save and prosper the Hebrew nation. Instead of starving, Jacob and his sons
lived in abundance because God did not want them to “come to poverty” (as the King James
version says) but rather enjoy prosperity despite the incredibly difficult times in which they were
living. The same God who moved men and circumstances to bless the Hebrews does the same
thing today for His sons and daughters who have been born into the kingdom of God through
faith in Jesus Christ.
God’s heart is clearly reflected in many additional references to poverty and the poor
through the Bible, and almost invariably His assumption is that when He is speaking to His
people, He is not speaking to the poor, but to those in a position to HELP THE POOR. Even
when he mentions the poor in the nation of Israel, He treats them as an exception, as people who
need the respect and help of those the blessings have overtaken. He is so concerned that His
people maintain themselves in spiritual and material prosperity that He has filled the Book of
Proverbs with striking examples of the contrasts between poverty and plenty. As we continue
with these illustrations let’s remember that though poverty is a curse, God loves the poor.
Proverbs 10:4, “Poor is he who worked with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent
makes rich.” The Lord is using the metaphor of a slack or negligent hand to show that laziness,
deceitfulness, and idleness bear no fruit. In contrast, the diligent, the man who is decisive and
who economizes time and goods, becomes wealthy. You will notice there is no striving after
wealth here. The RESULT of diligence, of administering well what God has provided, is riches.
The blessings overtake the diligent and godly person.
What we see in this proverb, and others like it is that the basic difference between the poor
and the prosperous is not so much circumstance, but attitude. A man spoke to me several years
ago about his outlook. He said, “I was born poor. I am poor. I’ll die poor.”
In those three statements he literally summed up the whole of his life. And unless something
drastically changed his way of thinking I am sure that his future was just as he predicted it: Poor.
Other people I have met have told me, “No one ever taught me anything about money. Not
how to make it. Not how to spend it. Nothing. I got married and I started spending.”
The result of both the “I am poor” and the “We got it, let’s spend it” attitude is extreme
poverty for many people. They enter into deep debt, worry, sickness, depression. The children
hear their parents discussing financial problems like “I don’t know how we’re going to pay this
bill. Every time we start to get ahead something happens. There is never enough. No matter how
hard I try I never seem to make ends meet.”
With that kind of training it is inevitable that another generation will come along with an
ingrained poverty mentality or not knowing how to handle money. This can go on generation
after generation because those inward attitudes are not correct. They are not aligned with the
Word of God. It is, as the Scriptures indicate, that God visits “the iniquity of fathers on the
children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”
Even Christians carry that wrong attitude. “Why do we need to worry about wealth?” It’s
all going to burn anyway.”
Compare this attitude with the Bible’s. We have already seen that a good man LAYS UP
blessings for his grandchildren. Then in Luke 16, Jesus tells His disciples about the unfaithful
steward who was wise in the ways of the world, and afterward draws some conclusions. One is
that we should use the riches of this world to make friends. Another is quite remarkable. “He
who is faithful with a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little
thing is unrighteous also in much. “If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of
unrighteous mammon (riches), who will entrust the true riches to you? (vs. 10-11).”
Jesus makes a very definite connection between how we use this world’s goods and our
ability to receive and use spiritual riches. For this reason alone we must break away from any
preconceptions we have about poverty, wealth, and money, and allow the Word of God to
transform our minds so that we can perceive life the way God wants us to. The Proverbs that
follow will help us to better understand His perspective.
Proverbs 10:15, “The rich man’s wealth is his fortress, the ruin of the poor is their poverty.”
I should make clear that the rich should not trust in their riches, but in the Lord, who is truly our
“strong tower.” Nonetheless, from a human point of view, there is much truth in the fact that a
man with resources is better able to defend himself from hard times, legal problems, and so on,
than the poor man. For the poor man, even his poverty can become an additional source of ruin.
I’ve seen cases where a woman has said, “I am not going to be married to this loser any more.
I’m leaving.” I can’t say that poverty is THE reason for the breakup of such marriages, but it is
certainly one of the strongest contributing factors.
Proverbs 13:7, “There is one who pretends to be rich, but has nothing; another pretends to
be poor, but has great wealth.” In this instance, the term “pretends to be rich” refers to the man
who thinks he can keep his riches permanently, whereas the Bible says we came into the world
with nothing, and we’ll go out of it with nothing. Everywhere in the Scriptures the attitude of
being attached to riches is looked on as pure foolishness. The man who trusts in temporal
belongings will find them useless in eternity.
The other man, the one who pretends (or considers himself) to be poor, has indestructible
riches, treasures in heaven. For example, I consider myself poor. When I come before God, I am
a complete beggar. Everything I have is because of His grace, and everything I will ever be is
because of His love. At the same time, because He is a generous God, I have everything. I am a
joint heir with Jesus to all that our Heavenly Father has. Though God has blessed me with this
world’s goods and money, I don’t see myself as the owner but as the steward. I am poor, yet I am
rich: all the glory for what I have goes to God.
The worldly rich man looks at his wealth, and says like the farmer in Luke 12, whose
productive lands produced huge harvests, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and
build larger ones, and then I will store all my grain and my goods.” God gave this man the
harvest: the farmer did not do it himself. But there is no hint that he gives God thanks. In fact,
his attitude is entirety self-centered and self-directed. He thinks he is in control of his life and
that what he owns is really his. This foolish farmer continues, “Soul, you have many goods laid
up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”
According to this parable God came to that man and said, “You fool! This very night your
soul will be required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?”
Proverbs. 13:18, “Poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline, but he who
regards reproof will be honored.” All of us have the tendency to be undisciplined in areas of our
lives, and if these tendencies are not corrected they can bring us to disaster. Take a little thing
like not brushing your teeth or going to the dentist for a checkup. The result of indiscipline
won’t be apparent for years, but eventually your teeth will rot out. The man who does not
discipline himself to arrive at work on time eventually gets fired. Once he has been fired from
different companies for the same indiscipline he won’t have to worry about being fired again: No
one will want to hire him in the first place.
There is another kind of indiscipline that has even worse effects in the home. I mentioned
the financial attitudes that keep people chained to poverty, and how they can be passed on to the
children. Don’t think these wrong attitudes have to do with money. They affect all areas of our
being and those of our children. Take this scenario:
Father comes home from work on payday. The bills are waiting for him, but there is not
enough money to cover them all. He has already borrowed from a loan company and he does not
have any more collateral.
His wife says, “If we don’t pay on the washing machine, they’re going to repossess it.”
“Well, pay it then!”
“And what do we do about the car? We’re already behind.” Her tone is belligerent.
“Use the money we were going to use for the encyclopedia payment.”
“We can’t do that. The kids tore out some of the pages. They won’t take the set back.”
“What do you want me to do about it? Can’t you control the kids,” he charges.
“Can’t you make enough money? We never have anything,” she screams.
The discussion is not one of how they are going to discipline themselves to stop buying
anything they think they need and to live within a budget and to look for ways to bring in
additional income to make it through this crisis. It is a highly emotional argument. The kids are
hearing it all, and maybe even feeling a little guilty because they think they had something to do
with the situation.
On the surface the argument sounds like anger, but the real emotion is fear…fear of living in
poverty all their lives, and of all the suffering and troubles that will bring. The Bible describes
the result of this lack of proper understanding and discipline when it says that Satan holds these
people all their lifetime in bondage by the fear of death (Hebrews. 2:14, 15). In this case,
economic death. Thoughts pass through the mind like, “We’re never going to have anything!” or
“Maybe I’ll get sick and we won’t have enough for medicines or hospital bills, and then what
will happen?”
These fears amplify in a child’s mind, especially since as a youngster he has the idea that his
parents are well able to cover situations. If the parents see themselves in economic ruin with all
its attendant emotional and mental strain, how much more the child!
If the youngster resists these fears, perhaps with a remark like, “Someday I am going to be
rich,” he may receive a negative admonition like, “Forget it son. It takes money to make money.
You weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth.”
If he is really persistent, greed might enter in. He’ll begin to resent his parents, blame them
for his lack of opportunity. At the same time he will start to put in motion the powerful emotion
of greed with the idea that he will never have to experience what his parents are going through.
The only problem is that his inner man has not been transformed by God. He’s simply replaced
one wrong set of attitudes about wealth with another wrong set. He may be very disciplined
toward making money—sensing that the poor are despised—but his wrong outlooks will lead
him to ultimate ruin. He is the other side of the poverty picture from the one who gives up and
says, “I’m poor.”
Now let’s look at Proverbs. 18:20, “The poor is hated even by his neighbors, but those who
love the rich are many.” A couple other Scriptures that go along these same lines are Proverbs.
19:4, “Wealth adds many friends, but a poor man is separated from his friend,” and Proverbs
19:7, “All the brothers of a poor man hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him!
He pursues them with words, but they are gone.”
Why is the poor man hated? First of all, he is the one who will be at his neighbor’s house
borrowing or asking for something. He may even be prone to thievery. Second, he may not take
good care of his house and grounds, which will reduce surrounding property values.
The rich man, on the other hand, is seen as someone who can provide opportunity or benefit
to his neighbors. He may have the money to finance civic improvement. He may have
connections with the government. He may be able to get his neighbors jobs with his business
acquaintances, or even hire them himself. If he is a godly man, he will be more than willing to
help as Proverbs 14:21 points out:
“He who despises his neighbor sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor.” The
Christian is never to despise anyone. We have seen the world hates the poor, but we should not
reject them. Note the implication that this proverb is not aimed at the poor, but at those who have
accepted God’s wisdom and are prospering. The prosperous are to extend mercy and respect to
us the poor, and help them. This is part of what wealth is truly about. Two compliments to this
proverb are Proverbs 28:27, “He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his
eyes will have many curses,” and Proverbs. 19:17, “He who is gracious to a poor man lends to
the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.”
God is warning us through these Scriptures that being poor is a difficult and hazardous
position to be in. Yet, He says to us who have prospered because we live out his Word:
Remember the poor. Be kind to the poor. Help them. Be generous. This is in direct contrast to
the financial self-help books that advise their readers. “Stay away from the poor. They will slow
down your economic growth. They are an emotional and mental drain.”
I repeat, the Christian’s perspective is to help the poor. Not be poor. As Proverbs 14:31
says, “He that oppresseth the poor reproaches his Maker; but he that hath mercy on the needy
honoreth Him.” That’s to say that when we help the poor, we are really giving glory to God
because we are obeying Him, and the blessings of our God follow those who keep His
commandments.
We must keep this in mind or we can fall into the trap of thinking that wealth itself brings
friends or happiness. The verses I have presented could give that impression if not rightly
understood. What the Bible is reporting in some of these verses is the way the world views the
poor and the rich, not what God says is right. In other Scriptures we find the balance that
striving after wealth; trusting in it, or using it in ways that do not build the kingdom of God ,
only lead to heartache and disaster. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “But those who want to get
rich, fall into temptations and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men
into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing
for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang (I Tim 6:910).”
The Bible is saying that riches per se are not wrong. When Jesus spoke of the beggar
Lazarus and the rich man, Lazarus did not go to heaven because he was poor and the rich man to
hell because he was rich. God looks on the heart of the attitude, not exterior circumstances. The
reason why it is hard for many rich men to enter into the kingdom of God is because their hearts
are not set on God, but on accumulating riches, status and power in this world. Those wealthy
men in the Bible whose hearts were stayed on God became wealthy precisely because God
blessed them as a mark of His love, not because they searched after riches. The Scriptures
describe Job as the richest man in the East. Abraham was a very wealthy man with at least 300
men servants he could count on in a dangerous battle situation. Joseph was the second most
powerful man in Egypt and the source of great material blessings to his family.
But when a man sets his heart on becoming rich, and that becomes his goal he will truly
pierce himself with many sorrows and troubles. Dozens of other Bible passages reveal God’s
view of ill-gotten or ill-used riches. Psalm 37:16 says, “Better is the little of the righteous, than
the abundance of the many wicked.”
Proverbs 11:4, “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from
death.”
Proverbs 10:28 “He who trusts in his riches will fall.”
Ecclesiastes 5:13, “There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being
hoarded by their owner to his hurt. When those riches were lost through bad investment and he
had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.”
Jesus, in the parable of the sower, talks about the direct connection between the desire for
riches and unfruitfulness in the spiritual realm. The Lord speaks of the Word of God as seen that
falls among thorns, and observes, “These are the ones who have heard the word, and the worries
of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke
the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
He also warns us in Luke 12:15, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of
greed: for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist in his possessions.”
This is an essential understanding. Greed, covetous, striving after riches, not using wealth
wisely, are wrong attitudes because they lead to troubles in this world and possible damnation in
the next. Yet we know from the blessings of Deuteronomy that God is not against wealth.
Everywhere in the Scriptures He heaps riches—material and spiritual—on those who follow
Him. How then are we to reconcile this seeming contradiction between the curses of poverty and
the dangers of wealth? By making our life goal obedience to God’s will!
Total prosperity will come to us when we stop striving after money and position on one
side, and when we accept that God does not want us poor on the other. Money in itself is not
evil. It is a medium of exchange. Lusting after money is evil, but for that matter, lusting after
anything in this world is evil. When we seek God with all our hearts He will provide us with both
material prosperity and the well-being of our souls that no gold or jewels can buy. Then we will
be in a position to give to the poor from a heart of compassion, knowing that we were also once
poor and that God has freely given to us.
Someone might object saying, “Come on, you’re just sugar coating money-making schemes
with some ideas of being a nice guy and helping the poor. Doesn’t the Bible say not to lay up
treasures on earth where the moth and rust corrupt, but in heaven?”
That is such an extreme misinterpretation of what the deceitfulness of riches is about that it
is actually a defense of poverty. Of course we don’t want to lay up treasures on earth like the
foolish farmer did! But let’s examine this question: How do we lay up treasures in heaven? We
are certainly not going to lay up krugerrands there. So when the Lord is talking here about laying
up treasures, He is talking about the use men make of riches.
For example, people want money for personal security. They do not want to have to depend
on anyone, not even God. That is storing up riches on earth.
They want money for power. They are not looking for God’s authority to work in their lives
to bless others. They want money so they can say to other people, “You had better do what I
say.”
They want money as a means to gain fame or honor. “I am a wealthy man. I am important,”
is the message they want to convey to others, “You should honor me, defer to me.” They are not
looking for the honor that God bestows on His servants.
That was Jesus’ point. Is your treasure (What you value and strive after) the source of your
security, power, fame, or whatever else it is you want? Or is your treasure to do the good works
God has ordained for you? For this last perspective, it does not matter whether you have $100
in your wallet or $100 million in a Swiss bank account because you are going to use whatever
you have to further God’s kingdom, not build your own petty dream. The rich man in Luke 16
planned to use his treasure selfishly to eat, drink and be merry. Job, the richest man in the East in
his day, used his money to do what God commands: to help widows, orphans, travelers, etc.. God
gave him even more. Job’s money and goods were not his treasure. Doing God’s will was his
delight. I am not saying however, that we should do God’s will with the idea that God will make
us rich the way He did Job and Abraham. That is a wrong motive. Material wealth, remember, is
just a portion of the total prosperity that God has for those who love and serve Him. It should be
considered a RESULT of our obedience, not a MOTIVE for it.
How could we say that because a man practices the principles in the Book of Proverbs—and
we have already looked at a few of them—and begins to prosper, that he is sinning? Far from it!
That man is increasing his capacity to give and to serve in the kingdom of God. The key is to
strive after God’s will, and as prosperity overtakes us, to maintain our integrity. The question
then will not be “Should I be rich or poor?” It will be, “How should I wisely distribute what God
has given me?” If the answer to the latter question is to further the Gospel under the Holy Spirit’s
guidance, you can be trusted with the true riches because you will know how to use the small
things like money. This is truly laying up treasures in heaven.
In conclusion, the words of Agur in Proverbs 30:7-9, coveys how I see this dynamic balance
between poverty and riches on one hand, and God’s will on the other. We find uppermost in
Agur’s mind not some “God’s people must be poor” idea, nor the modern concept that “We are
the King’s kids and we deserve the best of everything.” Central to his thinking is what must be
central to ours: God and His glory.
The verse reads, “Two things I ask of thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception
and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that is my
portion, lest I be full and deny Thee and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be in want and steal,
and profane the name of the Lord.” This is the attitude of the wise man. If God adds riches to
him, he will know what to do. He will set aside what he needs for his daily bread for his
family’s future and give the rest to the work of God’s kingdom. In the following chapters I will
detail how you can develop your faith so that the poverty pictures in your mind are transformed
into a long-range view of how to succeed in every area of life.
Chapter 4
Reality of the Word of God
Are you willing to invest everything you have on somebody’s word that the investment will
be a great success?
Few of us are. We are more like the apostle Thomas. When the other disciples told him
Jesus had risen from the dead and that they had seen Him, he replied, “Unless I shall see in His
hands the imprint of the nails, and put my fingers into the place of the nails, and put my hand
into His side, I will not believe.” We want to touch, to see, to experience. Then we will believe.
The world has taught us, “Seeing is believing.”
Jesus finally did appear to Thomas, who was then converted from a doubter to a believer.
The Lord said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did
not see, and yet believed.” Believing without seeing is basic to godly success, but this does not
mean believing any success scheme that comes to your attention. There are right beliefs and
wrong beliefs. I have demonstrated that beliefs like thinking that being poor is somehow “good,”
or that being wealthy is “wrong,” are errors from God’s point of view. Likewise, despising the
poor or putting your efforts, into being rich are equally outside God’s will. Any of these four
attitudes will lead you to fail to achieve the overall prosperity I have described as God’s desire
for His people.
We must believe, but we must believe the right things, and what is right is the Word of
God—the Holy Bible. This book is our Heavenly Father’s heart revealed to man. It contains all
the KNOWLEDGE necessary for you to live a godly life. The Scriptures do not tell you how to
repair your car. That is not a matter of everlasting importance. The Bible teaches you how to live
according to eternal principles that will enable you to make right decisions for prosperity and
how to fulfill God’s will in this lifetime and enter into His presence in the next. The man who
obeys them will be a success. All that he puts his hand to will prosper.
Look at it this way: Humanity is tremendously limited—deliberately so by God—so that
men have to look outside themselves for spiritual input. God planned that input should come
from Him. At the same time He gave man the free will to choose, and man chose to open himself
to Satan’s influence (and Satan is not a concept or some sort of impersonal evil: he is a being
who has rebelled against God and who is determined to lead men in active rebellion against
God). The Bible tells us the entire world system is under Satan’s sway). It is only when we enter
the kingdom of God that we begin to escape from the kinds of thought patterns that have driven
the world to war and want.
As Christians we receive our spiritual input from God. He speaks to us through His Word
and through the Holy Spirit (Who always agree in principle with the Word). The touchstone of
His relationship with us in the Bible. God has designed us that when we believe and act on His
Word, the result is that WHAT WE BELIEVE COMES TO PASS! When the thoughts we
receive from the Holy Spirit or from the Bible as the Spirit inspires what we read, enter our
hearts and become a vital part of how we perceive and respond to life, and when we allow the
Holy Spirit to transform us by the renewing of our minds (replacing our former way of thinking
and acting with a Bible based perspective on mankind and the world)-- then we experience the
power to take any set of circumstances and conform them to our inner belief. That is why it is
impossible for a man to be prosperous on the outside until he has become prosperous on the
inside. A man’s thoughts about prosperity first must agree with the Bible’s teaching. Next, that
man must translate those thoughts into action. Finally, the truth of the Bible becomes real in his
experience.
For example, Jesus believed that when He blessed and broke the five loaves and two fishes
to feed a crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children, that there would be enough food to go
around. His thoughts had a living force, and they transformed circumstances. His word also acted
at a distance. When He told the centurion that his servant was healed, it was done at that
moment, even though the servant was not physically present. The reason is as Jesus Himself
affirmed, “The Son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing:
for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” If God has
ordained that something will be done, it will be done!
Today, Jesus is alive in the heart of every Christian, and His Word—The Bible—is living
and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, well able to judge the thoughts and intentions
of the heart. As we act in conformity to this Word, two things happen: We become more like
Jesus, and what we believe and act on comes to pass. This acting out God’s will is the principle
on which Jesus based His authority and miraculous power. As you read the bible with an open
and believing heart, the Holy Spirit will make it alive to you. He will whisper to your heart,
“This Scripture, this verse is true for you. Act on it!”
The result? We act according to God’s command and the blessings overtake us. But this can
only happen if we absolutely, unwaveringly, believe that the Bible is what God says it is: His
Word to us. We cannot afford the luxury of thinking the Bible is one spiritual book among many.
It is THE only book God has given to man. Nor can we believe that some parts are inspired and
others are not, or that what was applicable in the times of Jesus is not longer true today. Jesus
declared that not a single period or comma of the Law would be lost until its purpose was
completed. Furthermore, Jesus—the Word of God made flesh—is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. There is no error in the principles and prophecies revealed in the Scripture; they are as
God revealed them to the inspired writers by His Spirit. It is imperative, then, that we accept the
Bible as being the basis for the revelation of God’s will in our lives.
To accept the Bible unconditionally is to take God at His Word. This is wisdom. It is the
answer to the question about whether you are willing to stake your present and future on
somebody’s word. I would never risk myself and what I have on a mere man’s word. But I
unhesitatingly place myself in God’s hands—I take Him at His Word—every day, and I can
assure you that he has never forsaken me or failed me. I have found that as I read the Scriptures,
and mediate upon them, God gives me both the wisdom to understand His principle for abundant
life and the guidance I need to apply them to my personal decision making. This wisdom is not
available apart from the Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Now that you understand that the Bible is--our Heavenly Father’s written guide for success
in every area of life--let us discuss a very important characteristic that sets it apart from other
books. It is not a book of facts like a text or a work of non-fiction. The Bible is a book of
conclusions, but the right conclusions. On the other hand, the world’s training leads us to
conclusions, but the wrong ones. As Satan wars against us in his attempt to keep us enslaved to
the fear of death, he tells us, “You will not prosper. You will end up in the depths of poverty.
You are going to get sick. Disease is stalking you. Your emotions are starting to frazzle. Your
mind is slipping. You can’t remember things the way you used to.” How does the devil do this
without our being aware? It is a process I call “Fact, fact, fact, conclusion.”
Let’s look at a child growing up. He is three-year old Tommy, the youngest of four brothers
and sisters. It is breakfast time and mother has made biscuits. Tommy eats his breakfast along
with a hot biscuit, and now he wants another. His older brothers and sister have been eating
somewhat faster than he, and now there is only one biscuit left on the tray. Tommy looks at the
tray, sees the one biscuit left and reaches for it. At the same moment his two brothers reach for it
and the oldest, being bigger and stronger, takes the biscuit.
Tommy starts to cry, “Please can I have it?” You already ate a lot.”
Mother intervenes, “Stop your crying. Let your brother have it. He needs more because he is
growing so fast, and he has to cut the grass after school.”
Certain facts might then enter into Tommy’s mind. First, I wanted a biscuit. Second, there
were not enough biscuits to go around. Third, I did not get a biscuit. Fourth, the biggest and
strongest got the biscuit. The conclusion: If I want the biscuits I will have to aim at being the
biggest and strongest—or if not that—the smartest.
Of course, this thought progression might not come to him all at once, but certainly over a
period of time Satan will attempt to teach Tommy that brains and/or strength and size separate
the “haves” from the “have nots.” Once that idea is established, anytime, anywhere, that Tommy
experiences a similar set of facts he will quickly arrive at the pre-programmed conclusion. He
will automatically think if I am going to get the biscuits, (or the girlfriend, or the job, or the
money, or the whatever) I am going to have to be bigger, stronger, and/or smarter than the
competition. Then acting out of self-interest, Tommy will train himself to get what he wants
without caring about the cost to others or even to himself. That is fact, fact, fact, conclusion, a
Satanic way of thinking that is opposed to the reality of God’s Word.
This example is typical of the programmed conclusions that fill our minds. Most of us do
not think a matter through: Further we react to the facts with the conclusions we already have in
mind. These conclusions come from our parents, other relatives, close friends, teachers, or from
our own observations, and by the time we are 10 or 11-years old many of our life patterns are
substantially set. We are locked into patterns like that of the fish experiment: A behavior
researcher placed several fish in a long, thin aquarium, and told his assistant. “Place the fish food
in a feeding ring at one end of the tank. Every time you feed the fish, tap on the bowl at the end
where the food is to get their attention.”
This assistant did as told and after a short time whenever he dropped food into the feeding
ring and tapped the side of the bowl, the fish would race to that end to feed.
Once the pattern was completely established in the fish, the researcher told his assistant,
“Put a glass partition six inches from the end of the tank with the feeding ring so that the fish are
separated from their food source, and continue on as before, but take the food out after 15
minutes.”
The assistant did so. With the partition in place, he placed food in the ring and tapped the
side of the tank. The fish went racing for the food, and bumped their heads on the glass. They
tried frantically to get past the partition but could not. Then the food was removed.
The next day the assistant repeated the procedure and the fish raced for the food only to
bang their heads again. This went on for several days until finally when the assistant placed food
in the ring the fish ignored it even though they were hungry. They had learned that they would
only hurt themselves trying to get the unreachable food.
At that point, the researcher said, “Remove the glass partition and feed the fish.”
With the glass removed the fist ignored the food even though they had free access to it.
Why? Because they had drawn a conclusion about the availability of food that was not based on
present reality. In the same manner, Satan has programmed us to act in ways that are contrary to
God’s reality. The fish are somewhat like Tommy, who instead of fighting to get the biscuits
decides, “I guess, I am just a loser. There is no sense fighting the system.
This is a very simple example. In practice, people have very complex patterns that gloss
over the raw reality that what they call thinking is nothing more than reshuffling or recombining
previously held conclusions. Let’s take Tommy again. He decides he is going to be big, strong,
and smart. Because he develops himself he generally gets his way, proving his breakfast table
conclusion. “The strong guy gets the biscuits.” One day, however, he runs into a group of
bigger, stronger men who are after the same goal he is pursing. He realizes that if he tries to
attain the goal the others may rob him or even do him physical harm.
So what does he do? Take on the loser attitude? No, he just brings in another previously
learned conclusion, “Discretion is the better part of valor.” He has not changed his original
conclusion or goals, he has simply combined two conclusions.
He says, “As soon as I get out of this situation, I will be back to thinking how to be bigger
and stronger, and ultimately get what I want without endangering myself.” He does not examine
his underlying attitudes to see if there is more to life than a dog-eat-dog existence, although he
might become despondent with his values and decide to change. He might try any number of the
so-called self-realization techniques, or try drugs, or hypnotism, or go to a psychiatrist. What he
will end up doing is reshuffling once again his set of false conclusions. Our basic life patterns are
far too complex and interwoven for any human being to unthread them without God’s help. That
is why the cure rate of psychiatry and psychology is extremely low.
Hypnotism is no better. There is an interesting case of a chronic finger nail biter. Under
hypnotism, this person was given the command to stop biting his nails, and he stopped. The next
thing is that he became crippled. There was nothing clinically wrong with him. It was a
psychological condition. His nail-biting habit was apparently a release mechanism for some
deeply seated fear or anxiety. With the nail biting release blocked, the fear simply opened a new
channel.
That is my point: Regardless of how you respond to a FALSE conclusion, that response will
lead to a crippling in some area of your life. That is how Satan holds men in bondage. The only
way to break these chains of false conclusions that bind you to fears is to accept the Bible as
truth.
The Scriptures show us how God has dealt with man, and gives us the details of both godly
and ungodly lives. “Do this,” the Lord says, “and I will bless you.” This is a sure determination
that many may seem to be living proof that the “strongest get the biscuits” but his interior life,
without the guidance of God’s Word, will be a disaster.
If you hear God say, “I want you to prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers” you
can be sure that Satan will try to arrange the facts in such a way that you will leap to worldly
conclusions about wealth, sickness, and happiness. In the future chapters I’ll explain how to root
out those old conclusions and replace them with truth from God’s Word. It is the process that
Romans 12:1 describes. “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God... And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The world system—through the fact, fact, fact, conclusion process—squeezes you into its
mold. You have the power to reverse the process by saying, “I believe that the Bible is God’s
Word to me. I believe what it says is true and I am going to practice it.” As you do, the Word
actually transforms your mind because it is not a collection of mere words. It is alive, powerful,
dynamic, sharper than any surgeon’s scalpel and penetrates to the deepest part of a man’s being
and renovates him from the inside. All the deeply held erroneous conclusions you hold about
life begin to disappear and you begin to form God’s set of conclusions about why you are on this
earth and what your full potential is. There is no other book, no technique, no anything, with the
Bible’s life-giving power. Accept it for what it is: God’s Word to you. Do not doubt it; do not
dispute its conclusions. Do it! Even if you don’t understand why, do it! It is the vehicle
designed to bring you into thinking and then acting Total Prosperity.
Chapter 5
Decisions, Decisions
There is an old saying that runs, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
There is also an old song that goes, ‘Mañana (tomorrow), mañana, is good enough for me.”
These popular ideas are diametrically opposed to one another, yet many people go through life
swinging back and forth between them. If they are confronted with pleasant appeals to their
minds or senses, they might make quick decisions: If what is before them is unpleasant, they
might put off their decisions to the indefinite future, hoping that somehow the situation will go
away.
To be totally prosperous, you must know how to make the right decisions in a reasonable
amount of time. Beginning with the question of salvation, the Lord requires clear-cut replies.
The Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts... (Hebrews 3:15).”
Receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the most important decision you can make in life,
and it is not one you can put off. That is too dangerous. The rich farmer who decided to tear
down his barns and build bigger ones took decisive—but wrong—action. God required his life
that night. TODAY God requires us to make a decision to follow Him and walk in prosperity, or
take the chance that procrastination will lead to lamentable consequences. As a Christian you are
confronted with constant choices between good and evil, between God’s will and your carnal
desires, between serving your neighbors or serving yourself. Add to this all the routine decisions
you must make in life and you see that success, to a great degree, depends on the right decisions.
The decisions you make affect not only your life but those of the people around you. The
decisions you delay or fail to make will also affect you. No prosperous person is a
procrastinator. Likewise, no prosperous person is a habitual snap decision maker. And by “Snap
decisions” I do not mean rapid decisions, but unthinking decisions (you should make rapid
decisions when necessary) .
An unthinking decision is like this: a teenager comes into the living room and says to his
father, “Hey Dad, gimmie the keys to the car. I’m going to the movies tonight.”
Dad hardly looks up from his newspaper. He hands the keys to junior. “Just make sure you
put some gas in,” he says.
On the other hand, the procrastinator says something like, “Well, son, let me think about
that. Your mother was talking about going shopping and I was thinking about maybe going down
to the bowling alley when I get done with the paper. Anyway, I’m not sure there is much gas in
the car.” By the time Dad finally gets around to a tentative decision, the movie has already
started.
Neither the unthinking snap decision nor procrastination are correct responses. Junior needs
a reply, and he needs guidance. To arrive at a sound, rapid decision Dad would have to request
some basic information. “What time do you plan on going? Who are you going with? What
movie is it? What time do you expect to be home?” The son senses his father’s interest and there
is a resolution to the question.
Though this is a very simple example, most decisions include the same basic elements. First
is the question to be resolved. Second is the information necessary to make the decision
(including seeking advice). Third is the philosophy behind the decision making. Fourth is
carrying out the decision. The basis for everything is number three. On it depends ultimate
success or failure.
But what has philosophy to do with decisions? When I say “philosophy” I don’t mean
academic abstractions about the nature of reality or the source of knowledge. I am talking about
the inner system of values and morality that guides your life. For the Christian, that system is the
Word of God. In it is everything we need to know about life and godliness. By following its
teachings, we can develop our faith, correct errors, change our lifestyle, and train ourselves to
live good, honest, clean lives. J.B. Phillips says in his translation of the New Testament, “The
Scriptures are the comprehensive equipment of the man of God, and fit him fully for all branches
of his work.” Without the Bible you could not make consistently correct, prosperity-building
decisions because you’d have no sure, unchanging base.
Now let’s get down to the practicalities. All decisions fit into two general categories: good
and bad (or evil). We want to make good decisions and avoid bad ones. Putting off is actually a
bad decision. We must make good decisions and that means we have to be able to discern
between good and evil. As we use the Bible as the fixed standard by which we judge all things,
the scriptural perspective eventually becomes our point of view. But we have to know the Word,
study it daily, meditate on it, practice it, allow it to fill our beings. In the same way that bank
tellers learn the difference between real money and bogus bills by constant handling of genuine
banknotes, you have to immerse yourself in the Bible’s teaching to such a degree that your
discerning ability becomes a sixth sense. When possibilities contrary to the Bible’s teaching
come to you, that intuitive faculty will warn you the same way that the “feel” of a fake banknote
warns the teller that something is wrong.
Some people call this intuitive ability the subconscious mind. Whatever you call it, it didn’t
“just get there.” Through your life experiences you lay the base. This discerning faculty is like a
very rapid computer that operates just below the conscious surface of your mind. And like a
computer, the programming axiom, “garbage in, garbage out,” holds true. To avoid bad
programming fill your life with the Scriptures and their practice. If “garbage in, garbage out,” is
true it is equally as true, “God’s love in, God’s love out.” As living by the Bible’s principles
becomes ingrained in you, your discernment will grow to the point that you will be able to listen
to all the facts, seek expert counsel, and make secure decisions on the basis of an understanding
or “feeling” for God’s will, not on the observation that “all the facts line up, so this must be a
good decision.” Sometimes the facts line up—remember Satan is constantly telling us, “fact,
fact, fact, conclusion”- but that underlying base, that philosophy of doing only God’s will and
living for His glory, tells us that despite the nice appearance the decision should be “no” and not
“yes”.
However, I’m not saying that all is intuition. Far from it. In any kind of decision-making
there is a proper place to gather information. I personally am not among those who believe the
quickest decision is the best one, though I normally make decisions very quickly once I have the
facts and have taken them to God in prayer for guidance. What you have to keep in mind is that
some decisions are of such great importance to so many people that you have to take them to
God and wait for HIS decision. What I am going to say about making decisions is qualified by
this point: When you make decisions that affect your own and others’ lives on a long-range
basis, you need to come to conclusions through counseling with godly men and women and
through deep prayer.
Let’s say there’s no more coffee in the house and I want a cup of coffee. I don’t call up five
trusted advisors and ask their opinion about whether I should go to the store. Nor do I pray and
wait for an answer from heaven. The reason is that these types of decisions have already been
made. I have already established that when I run out of coffee I get more coffee. It may be at
that moment, or it may be the next time I make a shopping trip.
Many people’s problem is that they gather facts, and gather facts, and gather facts. They
can tell you six ways to build a new addition to their homes and the benefits and faults of each.
Yet, they won’t commit themselves to a course of action. A decision without action is no
decision at all. IT is a cute mental exercise. So why do people procrastinate? Mainly through
fear of failure, but ironically, if they don’t do anything they have already failed in a sense. I
believe it is better to gather the information, consult with knowledgeable people, pray, make a
decision and act on it. To fail is better than not to have acted at all because the failure provided
you with the knowledge of what doesn’t work.
I have often committed myself to a course of action after considering all the options and
then found out I had committed myself to a wrong direction. Yet I have never found that any of
these wrong decisions were disastrous. Because the decisions were carefully thought out and
entered into rationality, there has always been a way to change the direction and arrive at a
correct position. In short, what appeared to be a failure was nothing more than an adjustment.
Sometimes I have had to make a series of adjustments, but the eventual result it that I have
arrived at the best position. The decisions that lead people to ruin are not wrong ones made after
careful planning, but rash or passionate decisions that often bear irreversible consequences.
It may be the fear of doing something rash that keeps some people from any kind of
decision except the decision not to make a decision. Whatever the reason, the habit of
indecisiveness unfortunately warps the intuitive faculty to such a degree that when a
procrastinator finally is forced into a move, he often makes it on the basis of fact, fact,
conclusion, rather than on the godly foundation so necessary for success. There is an interesting
case in the Bible. Joshua, that great leader of the Israelites gathered the nation together at a place
called Shechem and presented the people with a decision. Part of the covenant the Israelites had
made with Jehovah was that they would honor and serve Him only and not worship strange gods.
What actually happened was that there was vacillating among the tribes as to which God or gods
they would follow. Joshua said to them, “And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord
choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served
which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.”
Joshua himself had already weighed the facts. He clearly saw that strange gods had not
liberated them from Pharaoh’s hand, but that Jehovah had. It was obvious that the Amorites’
gods had no power against the God of the Israelites because Joshua’s army had literally wiped
out that nation. To Joshua, God was God, and the only one worth serving and depending on.
Joshua was not like those Israelites who wanted to have God on their side, but at the same time
wanted to have recourse to some of the old gods just in case they might be useful channels to
power or prosperity in their new country. Joshua understood that God demands total obedience,
and to try to serve Him and “strange gods” at the same time would result in the cursing of
Deuteronomy 28, not the blessings. At the same time, to serve both Baal or any of the other
demon “gods” and Jehovah would not work because the are mutually exclusive. God shares His
glory with no one. To underscore his personal conclusions based on both observable fact and
eternal Scripture, Joshua added “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. He
defined the situation clearly for the Israelites and then gave them the counsel of his good
example.
Everywhere in the Bible where you find successful men, you will find decision makers.
Abraham made the decision to leave family and homeland for a country God would show him,
and he never turned from that decision. King David as a young boy already understood decision
making when he ran forward to meet the giant Goliath. That was definitely an irrevocable
decision not based on mere facts, but on the promises of God. Paul received a vision in the night.
A man from Macedonia appeared to him asking for help. St. Luke reports, “and when he had
seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us
to preach the Gospel to them (Acts 16:10).” The men who go on to renown, to greatness, to the
fulfilling of their destinies, have always been decision makers.
That does not mean they always made the right decisions. Abraham on two occasions made
poor decisions by hiding the fact that he was Sarah’s husband. His decision to have a child by
the Egyptian slave, Hagar, was not the best either. David certainly did not make good decisions
when he decided to commit adultery with Bathsheba and then cover the sin by sending her
husband to be killed in the front lines of battle. I am sure that Paul made wrong decisions. All
humans do. Still, you will find that men whose lives are successful overall are the ones who can
make a decision rather quickly once they have the facts. Having decided, these men are at peace
with themselves. They do not begin to second guess or waver.
In contrast, indecision brings turmoil in its wake. Israel—inspire its decision to follow God
both under Moses and Joshua’s governments—kept going back and forth between Jehovah and a
host of false gods. This vacillation led to the ruin of the nation. It can also lead to personal ruin.
In my own life I had a habit of coming with a set of facts on which to base a decision. I would
arrive at what to do, and explain the situation to my wife.
She would say something like, “Oh yes, honey, now I see what you mean. We’re finally
going to do something.”
The next day I would discover some tiny unresolved point, so I would review my whole
plan, revise the decision, and re-explain everything to my wife. I was very hesitant about making
a wrong choice. Meanwhile, the pressure to make a decision was mounting, but I would keep
finding new reasons to double check my conclusions. Pressure and tension started to weigh so
heavily on me that I was in a constant state of mental anguish. My finances were bad. My
ministry was not doing well. My family life was deteriorating. It was at the height of my era of
indecision that I almost came to a state of emotional collapse that led me to separate from my
wife and children for some time. I blamed them for my condition, but really I was shunning my
responsibility to provide them with decisive leadership. During this period of desperation God
spoke to me in a clear way. He sad, “Henceforth I want you to practice My Word.” Behind
everything in the Bible you have added three little words of your own: The Bible says... but we
know!” The tension in my life came from my own inability to accept God at His Word, and to
decisively act. I relied on my flawed human understanding, “But we know...” I was not sure
God’s way would work, but I wasn’t sure my way would either. As a consequence I did very
little and my life kept going downhill.
But God forced me into a personal decision the way He forced the Israelites through Moses
and Joshua to define themselves. He said, Henceforth you will practice My Word whether you
understand it or not.”
I decided to trust God. I now had a sure philosophical base: The Bible is the source of all
transcendental knowledge. Living according to its teachings is reality. The tension and
uncertainty went out of my life. In a sense, all my future decisions had been made by that one
decision to follow God. That is because He is prepared good words for us to walk in, and
because the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Suddenly, I was capable of making
decisions.
You are also capable of being a strong, decisive person. If you are not, it may be that you
have got into the habit of procrastinating, thinking that since you have not done anything you are
still safe, or that everything is fine. I’ll tell you there is only movement towards certainty once
you have made a decision. Once you are moving, you can make adjustments. It may happen that
you find you have started off in the wrong direction. Other facts emerge which show that you are
clearly wrong. This is not failure. This is a step toward success. You would never have arrived at
these unseen facts or circumstance had you not taken action. Incorporate the new set of
experiences into a revised plan and continue on. You are progressing. Had you done nothing, you
would still be living with the pressures and tensions of indecisions, no closer than ever to a goal.
Deciding and failing is a painful learning process, but it is learning, and it puts you in the place
of making a better decision next time.
Now I’d like to put this dynamic between decision and indecision into the context of risk so
you can understand more clearly some of the processes that undermine purposefulness. I talked
about the pain of making wrong decisions. Life itself is a series of painful events. A baby is born
amid pain to himself and his mother. He immediately starts crying. Frustrations fill his life:
falling down, wetting his diapers, banging his head, being uncomfortable. All the pain serves to
guide him toward right actions and attitudes. But just as he begins to understand how to behave
himself in the least painful way he passes from boyhood into adolescence. Then he experiences
painful physical, emotional and social adjustments. There is much trial and error, but eventually
he finishes his studies, gets a job and gets married. This brings on new sets of painful
experiences. If a man is not careful, he may begin to think, how can I keep myself from pain?
The minute he decides to keep himself from pain, he has made a decision to be indecisive. He
has decided for the status quo, the slot in the job world that he currently holds, his present circle
of friends, his current range of educational and cultural achievements and the level of home life.
He has reached the effective end of any real forward movement. He stops growing intellectually,
emotionally, and socially. He knows movement brings pain and change and he does not want
any more.
The successful person knows there is no way to avoid pain. In fact, he does not want to. He
knows pain and suffering are very good in the right context: childbirth, exercise, study, and so
on. The successful person constantly is making decisions and he is constantly launching himself
into the unknown because that is where true accomplishment is—along with vulnerability and
pain. This is risk-taking. Along with avoiding pain, the indecisive person generally is not willing
to accept risks. Imagine if a baby decides not to risk walking because he might fall down and get
hurt. It is just as absurd for an adult to think that he can avoid risks in his life—unless he wants
to stagnate. And when I use the word “risk” I don’t mean “chance.” Taking a chance is trying to
pass a semi-trailer truck on a blind curve. Taking a risk is gathering facts, seeking counsel,
praying, calculating the situation, and on the basis of REASONABLE projections, lancing out to
the unknown. There is a possibility of failure, but there is also the probability of success, and the
certainty that even failure is just the basis for new and better projections.
To sum up, we don’t want to fall into any trap of taking facts at their face value, and of
coming up with pre-programmed conclusions. Nor do we want to procrastinate for whatever
reason, knowing that no decision is in itself a bad decision. Nor do we want to avoid decisionmaking altogether. Life involves growth, and to keep growing we need to make decisions that
will sometimes involve pain and discomfort. These are risks that we must accept if we are to
accomplish anything beyond the mediocre. We find in James 1:5-8, “If any of you lacks wisdom,
let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he
is a double–minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Chapter 6
Perseverance and Resiliency
All successful men and women have the same pattern of doing things. They research a
course of action, make a decision to aim for a special goal, and start moving. The quality that
assures their success is perseverance. Setback and failures are simply adjustments. They will not
alter from their course unless they see the decision they made was truly wrong and that they have
to start over again. Even then, you will notice the pattern: They do not quit; they start over.
A simple definition of perseverance is the ability to keep on toward a goal while you are
correcting the errors of the past. A friend came to me one day and said, “Jim, I’ve heard you talk
about doing some enterprise. Then I’ve seen you start out. The next thing I notice is that you’re
confronted with obstacles and finally you get knocked down. You quit for a time, but then I see
you trying a different way—or maybe even the same way—to reach that goal. You get knocked
down again. Then one day it all works out, and you reach the goal just like you said!”
That’s perseverance.
When I believe a certain direction is from God, I keep on trying to achieve it, knowing that
the Bible says, “For a righteous man falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in
time of calamity (Proverbs. 24:16).” God does not guarantee success on the first attempt (though
that may happen). You may fall seven times, or seven hundred times, but you get up and keep
moving because you understand you are on a journey, and that you are learning as you go. God
assures you that if you don’t quit, He will help you to get up and go onto victory. Getting up to
try again after falling down is part of the success mentality. Of course you’ll experience
setbacks in life. Of course you will make mistakes. Of course you will fall short of your goals.
But the difference between success and failure is not how many times you have fallen. It is how
many times you have gotten up. Ask yourself, “Do I have perseverance? Do I rise up after a blow
and with God’s help make another attempt? Or do I say “This is too much for me. I can’t take it
anymore. I quit.”
There is an old saying, “Winners never quit: and quitters never win.” The concept is so
simple it is actually sublime. The righteous man may halt on the road to success at times. He may
make bad judgments, be over-enthused about getting something, or commit himself to a project
that at the moment is beyond his means. But none of these difficulties is serious to him. He
learns from each incident, fights off discouragement, and maintains his integrity. A case in point
is that of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Israel. As a youth he dreamed that his parents and his
brothers were bowing down before him. He shared this dream of dominion with his family.
This infuriated his brothers, who after plotting to kill him, finally agreed to sell him into slavery
in Egypt. Joseph carried his dream of authority with him, and by diligent application because the
principal servant in the estate of a high-ranking Egyptian official. The Egyptian did not withhold
anything from Joseph, except his wife. Unfortunately she continuously made sexual advances
toward him, which he resisted. In anger she falsely charged him with attempted rape, and the
Egyptian sent him to jail.
Most people never experience anything nearly as devastating in their lives: Total rejection
by brothers, sold into slavery, and jailed in a dungeon unjustly for an indeterminate period. If
ever a man had a reason to forget about visions of authority and honor it was Joseph. But
perseverance dwelt in him, and with it, resiliency. He did not bemoan his bad luck, or rail
against his brothers for hating him, or charge the “system” for his situation. He did not get bitter,
desperate, or disillusioned. He set to work becoming a model prisoner, and in a short time he
was in charge of the entire jail.
Then he interpreted the dreams of two other prisoners: One was to die, the other was to be
set free. Joseph begged the king’s cupbearer—who was to receive his liberty—to help set him
free. Once out of jail, the cupbearer forgot about Joseph, who took this latest setback in stride.
At last a day came in which Pharaoh had a dream his wise men could not interpret. The
cupbearer remembered Joseph, who was quickly brought to the palace. Joseph interpreted the
dream about seven years of abundance and seven years of famine. Pharaoh, pleased with this
Hebrew slave’s wisdom, made him second in command in the entire kingdom. The end of the
story is that when famine came and the Hebrews ran out of food they had to go to Egypt where
they all ended up bowing before a now prosperous and successful Joseph, the second most
powerful man in Egypt. What a different story this would have been had Joseph given up after
his brothers sold him into slavery, if he had said “They did this to me, I have lost everything. If it
hadn’t been for them, I’d be something today, I got all the rotten breaks.”
Joseph, like David, Abraham, Paul and the other great men of the Bible, understood that
adversity is a normal process: If God wants us to prosper, you can be sure that Satan wants us to
fail, and that he will be warring against us at every moment. Joseph, David, Elijah—all these
exemplary men—moved steadily toward their goals in whatever circumstances they found
themselves. They did not crumble under adversity, or curse their luck, or give up. They used
their circumstances—or rose above them—and keep on to the finish. That warrior spirit has to
be in you too. You need to be able to endure failure, hardship, suffering. The writer of Hebrews
says, “For you have need of endurance (patience, perseverance), so that after you have done the
will of God, you may receive the promise (Hebrews 10:36).” This verse reminds me of a farmer.
He prepares a field in the fall, allows it to lay fallow all winter, and sows in spring. Maybe floods
come and pests, weeds, drought, bad seed, and even lack of capital for farm machinery and
fertilizer later in the season, but he keeps on. His eyes are set on the harvest. He set out with a
purpose and he has to follow through or lose his entire investment. After having done all he can,
he has to endure until he receives the promise contained in each of those seeds he planted in
hope. If the crop’s a failure, as happens in some years, he resolutely prepares for the coming
season. This is perseverance. The concept is clearly presented in the following poem by
Rudyard Kipling:
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
Without this kind of attitude you will not be able to overcome circumstances. With it, you
will find that similar qualities also begin to develop in your life: diligence, patience, consistency,
steadiness, endurance, steadfastness, long-suffering. The Apostle Paul said, “But what things
were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for
the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of
all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Phil 3:7-8).” Paul was a man who
had set out on a direction in his life, and eventually discovered it wasn’t correct. He was willing
to start over again toward a new goal of being like Jesus and of sharing in His resurrection. In
verse 12 he continues, “Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I
press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus…”
This “pressing on” is persistence, perseverance. Paul set his heart on reaching his desire. His
testimony is “I will never change my mind. God showed me this. Everything else is of far less
value. Pain and suffering will not deter me. If I fail or meet an obstacle, I will get up and
overcome.”
Then in verse 13 and 14, it says, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it
yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Seeing such
determination in Paul’s character, it is not difficult to understand why he was extraordinarily
successful in his vocation, so much so that today, two thousand years later, millions of people
study his epistles daily. Commentators have written thousands of volumes about his life and
letters, and his example inspires countless Christians to greater endeavors. He did not care about
his mistakes and failure, except for what they taught him about success. He was a decisive,
determined man who clearly set his goals and did not let anything stand between him and their
accomplishment.
If that same spirit is in you, and you apply it to any area of your life—spiritual, financial,
social, health, etc.—you will achieve your aim. Just be sure you combine your perseverance with
resiliency. A man has to be tough. I don’t mean hard or mean, but able to absorb crunching
blows and knockdowns without quitting. That is what Paul did. He pressed on toward the goal of
being like Jesus in spite of being stoned, left for dead, shipwrecked, flogged, jailed, mistreated,
and abandoned by friends. He snapped back from every blow and went on to be a great man.
Had he quit for the first time he was persecuted or the first time someone scoffed at him because
he tried to tell them about Jesus, I can assure you that we would not be following his example of
holiness today. He would be another unknown like the millions of others who have decided that
perseverance is not worth the pain.
Most people just don’t like to expose themselves to pain or rejection on any level. That’s
why there are so few good salesmen and so few good evangelists and ministers—actually so few
totally successful people anywhere. That ability to bend to the breaking point, straighten out,
and take the pressure again like a well-rooted tree on a windy mountain is not a common human
trait though the potential is in everyone. Instead of resiliency we usually find stiff-necked and
hard-hearted people. When a man becomes rigid, he is set up for a breaking, and unless he
knows Jesus when he falls down, he will probably adjust himself to a mediocre life that does not
require too many risks, or too many rewards.
I am not saying, however, that you should be thinking about failures, or of being blown
down by strong winds of adversity. Quite the contrary. St. Paul pressed on for the prize. He ran
a race but not with his eyes on the track or the crowd. He had his eyes on the goal. There was an
almost-great American football player some years back who never gained lasting recognition
because of a peculiar trait. Whenever he ran the ball toward the goal he became preoccupied
with the rival team. Instead of pouring all his energy and attention into making the touchdown,
he’d listen for the footfalls of players pursuing him, and he’d keep looking back to see if his
opponents were close enough to tackle him.
The same fault has dogged many runners. Instead of thinking about the finishing line, they
start worrying about tripping or about who’s gaining on them or about someone trying to push
them or step on their heels. Whatever the reason for the distraction, it’s often enough to give a
less endowed—but single-minded—competitor the victory. Certainly dangers exist. In sports
and in every other area of life you could trip, or an opponent could harm you. But don’t think
about that. Think about winning. Determination is the ability to keep on towards a goal once
you’ve taken stock of the dangers. Resiliency is the ability to snap back after every setback.
Without resiliency, you will eventually get stretched out of shape. You will say, “I want to go on,
but I can’t seem to get up anymore. I think I’ll try something else.” Thomas Edison must have
wondered whether his determination to use electricity to produce light was misplaced. After all,
no one had ever made a truly commercially successful vacuum light bulb. He started running
electric currents through vacuum bulbs using various kinds of filaments. He failed 10 times, 100
times, 1,000 times. Each time he snapped back with a new design, patiently running electricity
into the bulbs, changing the filaments, the voltage, the amperage, making sure there was a proper
vacuum, checking all the variables. He failed to get lasting commercial results time after time.
“Isn’t that enough, Edison?” Other scientists must have chided him. “Surely by now you
know it can’t be done. The greatest minds in the world haven’t been able to make a
commercially viable electric light bulb.”
“I believe it can be done,” Edison probably replied. “I’m going to try again.” After
innumerable tries he invented the tungsten filament bulb whose basic form still serves us today.
His genius was thinking that electricity could light the world. His determination and resiliency
brought it about. Success, as in this case, is not the result of random happenings—or a stroke of
genius or good luck—but the result of a man acting purposefully over time. Most men and
women need to grasp this. Instead of moving life, life moves them, circumstances force them
into fact, fact, fact, conclusion responses that float them along with the current. Edison didn’t
just let the current flow. He dominated it, harnessed it, put it to work. Had he quit after the
hundredth or five hundredth time, his genius would have been lost to the world. Likewise, when
you know something is true, when you receive a revelation from God, you know you can go on
to a satisfying end.
People will say to you. “You failed in that business.” Or “Too bad that plan was no good.
Better look for something else to do before you lose everything.
Not so! The man of God knows something that circumstances can never explain. Was
Edison a failure because he failed to find the answer to making the light bulb work after a few
hundred experiments? Was St. Paul a failure because he had to sneak out of Damascus in a
basket, or because he was jailed in Jerusalem? Edison knew that each failure brought him a tiny
bit closer to the goal. Paul used his prison cell to preach the Gospel to Caesar’s household in
Rome. Today’s Christian knows that perseverance and resiliency will bring him ultimate victory
because the Bible says so. Romans 8:28 promises, “And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose.”
Here’s the sequence: You receive a direction, maybe nothing more than an intuition from
the Holy Spirit. You begin to act on it. You fail. You fall down. You get up. You stumble again.
All the time you’re learning. All the time you’re getting closer to the goal. You keep persevering.
Your resiliency helps you to seek solutions to the failures. You know you’ll arrive at the goal
because ALL THINGS—every setback and downfall—are working together for your good. Then
one day you cross the goal line and you rest in victory just like every determined man who has
moved in God’s will before you has done. You say to yourself, “I’ve succeeded against the
world’s defeats. I’ve done it, and I’ll do it again.” You’re on your way to total prosperity because
determination and resilience are now part of your life and thinking.
Chapter 7
The Truth about Meditation
Until now I’ve emphasized that the Scriptures are God’s truth revealed to you. I’ve
underscored your need to practice their principles, and to go on with unwavering determination
to your goals. Now there is another technique you need to know, and that is exactly how to
INTERNALIZE the Word of God to the point that it’s not merely second nature to you, but
actually your new nature. Remember, our definition of prosperity isn’t only financial. If you
practice biblical principles with determination you will have economic success. Many nonChristians either knowingly or inadvertently have done so. But a man can experience economic
and social success without an essential transformation of his character. Such a person is only
partially successful in this world, and a total failure in things eternal. What makes the crucial
differences, given that you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, is meditation. Through it, God
effects complete changes in your being by allowing His Word to reach into the deepest part of
your heart.
I’ve talked about some of the changes I experienced in my own life as I began practicing the
Bible’s principles. One of the most dramatic advances was when I grasped what Christian
meditation really was and applied in to my life…
I looked into the Scriptures for the qualities and characteristics of a successful man of God.
Whenever I found one, I said, “That’s the way I want to be.” I’d meditate on that portion of the
Word and as I felt I was incorporating it into my everyday life. I’d say, “Thank you Lord. That
quality is happening in me.”
In addition, there is a great power unleashed when meditation is coupled with unity of
thought among persons striving after the same godly goals
Now the question is, exactly what is meditative process? The answer is very simple, but
before I explain what it is, I want to explain what it IS NOT because of the great confusion that
has entered the Body of Christ since occult meditation became popular.
First of all, no matter how you define them, all systems of meditations have some roots in
the truth of God’s revealed Word. Satan is not capable of developing either truth or new
principles. He is a liar. He can take a principle that works, twist or disguise it, but the essence
must be there. That is why many occult and oriental meditative systems seem to have some form
of godliness. The devil knows that true meditation is a powerful tool given to men by God so he
twists it to his own ends. Curiously because the enemy has perverted this essential practice,
many in the Church have shied away from it as if meditation were somehow sin.
To be sure, worldly meditation is sinful, but it is also easy to identify; no Christian need fear
falling into it. There are two basic categories of false practices:
In the first one you try to empty your mind altogether. You try to calm your thoughts to the
point where you can tune into the universe, which will then reveal things to you, raise your
consciousness level to higher ways of seeing, hearing, and being.
People who meditate like this are not tuning into the universe. The universe is a creation of
God, and far from revealing mysteries to us, it’s subjected to vanity and to slavery, to corruption.
It’s awaiting freedom when the Son of God fully manifests himself in the physical creation.
What happens is that in this technique, people empty their minds of their own thoughts and allow
demonic “revelations” to enter.
The second system is based on chanting or meditating on a mantra, which is a little jingle, or
even a word. This mantra has a certain vibrational structure that sets up wave lengths in your
mind which brings you in contact with supposed “universal principles.”
Again, I think people who use this system are making contact with satanic beings who
indeed do tell them certain things. After all, these enemies of God are very powerful and capable
of conferring certain kinds of wisdom and energy on human beings, but with the whole purpose
of dragging them to ruin through separation from God. Satan’s ultimate goal is to demonize the
meditator. He even uses seemingly harmless disguises like “scientific” and “transcendental”
meditation that allegedly help people toward a more stable psychological and emotional outlook.
In contrast, the person who meditates on God and on the Bible is being filled with the love,
life and blessings of the Holy Spirit. There is no certain word to repeat, no arcane posture, and no
special meditating chamber. Scriptural meditation means to ruminate. It is like the expression
“to chew something over.” Did you ever watch a cow chewing her cud in a field? She is not
racing around chewing grass. She’s already walked around eating. Now she has regurgitated a
ball of food and is standing or lying still, chewing that cud. Her eyes are staring out into space,
and she is very peaceful. She is ruminating.
In general Christian practice, you prayerfully read a portion of Scripture. Then you begin to
mull it over. You are not picking it apart intellectually, reasoning about it, or thinking about its
ramifications. This is not a Bible study. It isn’t a thinking process. It is a RECEIVING process,
an illumination. You are quietly dwelling on a verse when the most amazing things start to take
place: You consciously give control of your mind to the Holy Spirit and He begins speaking very
powerfully and profoundly to your spirit.
When this happens to me I sometimes find my emotions so greatly stirred that I begin to
weep with joy, peace, or contentment. Powerful transformation begins to take place in my
personality. Remarkable changes start to happen in my circumstances. People relate to me
differently. If my meditation is on those portions of the Scripture that have to do with finances or
business, I find that doors in those areas begin to open. There is no way to explain this rationally
because meditation is not a conscious process in which I say, “I’m going to make money,” or,
“I’m going to change this or that aspect of my behavior.” There is a place for such intellectual
exercises, but this is different. The Holy Spirit is working directly into the deepest part of my
being. I am not working through some thought process or brainstorming session.
Meditation is a passive state of mind, whereas thinking is an active state. But I do not mean
there is no activity in meditation. The Holy Spirit is very actively working in me—in my mind
and mainly in my heart. I need to be quiet so that I can hear from Him. For example, I think one
of the reasons the Hebrews considered that the day began at sunset rather than in the morning as
we do is precisely because they understood the meditation principle. Picture the great patriarch
Isaac as he goes out in the cool of the day—the evening—to meditate. His work for the day is
over. He is quiet. He is preparing for a new day by getting alone with God: Mediation on Him
and His will. All night as he sleeps the Lord will work those meditations into his heart while
Isaac’s intellect and body are resting. The following morning he will be refreshed and ready for
work.
I’m not saying that you should only meditate at night. We should meditate whenever we get
the opportunity. However, there does seem to be a pattern we can follow to some degree,
meditation, rest, activity. Have you noticed that if you haven’t prayed and meditated in the
evening, there often seems to be so much to do in the morning that you put off praying, and the
next thing, you pass through the entire day without consulting God or allowing His Spirit to
move within you in a COOPERATIVE way. So you decide, “Tomorrow I’m going to pray for
sure.” Meditating in the evening can help you get that time in.
Once you get into the habit of meditating you will begin to understand how profound the
results are. I can sketch some of the kinds of experiences that will happen in your innermost
being but the best judge of the importance of meditation in your life is the testimony of your own
spiritual growth. What is important is that as the Spirit takes you and leads you to a deeper
understanding of God’s nature, of His life, or of His principles or the prosperous life. He will
ALWAYS do so within the context of the Bible. There is no extra-biblical revelation. What you
will gain is a profound illumination of God’s truth that will change your personality and make
you better prepared for total prosperity.
In regard to these personality changes, I have pointed out how facts, facts, facts,
conclusions—often completely anti-biblical—enter our minds and program us to patterns that we
are not even aware of. In meditation, we permit the Holy Spirit to enter our spirits and effect a
cleansing from the inside out. What has happened is that deep emotional, psychological, and
spiritual twists have worked their ways into our beings and bound certain areas of our lives. The
apostle Paul calls them, among other things, strong holds, imaginations, and high things that
exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. These twists are lodged in what some
psychologists might call the subconscious, and most are associated with emotional or mental
shocks. The reasons are many, among them the loss of a loved one, being dealt with unfairly,
rejection, feelings of worthlessness, weakness, impotence or guilt. From an adult perspective,
these happenings probably would not amount to much, but from a child’s point of view they are
traumatic. Not knowing how to deal with a certain situation, the child buries it deep within
himself and tries to forget. In essence, these hidden experiences then cause the person to react to
life in an irrational way.
I have known many people with just these sorts of problems. Exactly at those points in their
lives where they need to think most clearly when they are drawing close to success, they do
something irrational. It seems like they deliberately ruin their chances for success. This is a
common trait in the lives of alcoholics, drug addicts, people enslaved in sexual or moral
aberrations, etc. They’ll seemingly recover from their vices, but right on the verge of success,
they’ll get angry on the job and storm out against all good counsel, make extravagant
expenditures, or get mixed up with the worst kind of company. I know a man—a good
newspaper reporter--who went on sudden alcoholic binges. He would lose a few weeks from his
job then suddenly snap out of his binge, recuperate and reappear at work. He did not always get
his job back because after a few such experiences with him, the editor would fire him in favor of
a more dependable person. Eventually his wife divorced him. Finally he landed a job with a
newspaper whose publisher was aware of his “weakness” but who gave him the job anyway
because the publisher was a compassionate man. The reporter did well for perhaps a year in
which he showed himself a good newsman and a good co-worker with what had now become a
small publishing chain. There were possibilities of advancement before him, but he started
drinking again. This time he assured himself of losing his job by not only abandoning his tasks,
but by calling the wife of the publisher, who in the past has been vary kind to him, and insulting
and affronting her during his drunken stupor.
What can change this and similar kinds of destructive behavior? Only the Word of God. The
Word is quick and powerful. It’s alive. The ordinary words you hear in conversation or read in
books and magazines are at best thoughts neatly arranged to help make a concept clear. The
Word of God is alive when the Holy Spirit touches what is on the Bible’s printed page. That
living word has power to move directly from God’s heart into yours through two main vehicles:
anointed preaching and your personal meditation. The Word is powerful, that is to say, dynamic,
and is able to accomplish changes in your heart that are impossible by any other means. You
have to understand that this “dynamic” does not mean “potentially powerful” like a stick of
dynamite is potentially—or statically—powerful. The Word of God is a moving force that
penetrates right to that place in your being that divides soul and spirit. The writer of Hebrews
puts it this way, “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, or both joints and marrow, and able
to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart...”
You may not understand the complexities of your subconscious mind, or the workings of
your heart, but God’s Word moves right into those intimate, hidden areas discerning problems
and providing answers through meditation. I stated earlier that psychology and psychoanalysis
have very low cure rates. They are intellectual approaches to what is basically a non-rational
problem. Furthermore, they don’t take into account that man is more than mind and body. The
Bible does. The Bible teaches us that we are composed of spirit, soul and body. Our bodies will
eventually die. They are our temporary homes. Our souls are able to feel, think recall, retain,
make decisions and command our bodies. Lastly, our spirits—which along with our souls or
personalities are eternal—come alive when we are “born again,” or give our lives to Jesus. We
then have direct communion with God.
It is important to note that only Christians have a direct channel to God’s Spirit via the work
of the Holy Spirit. That is why in meditation the powerful and alive Word of God is able to enter
directly into us and transform us. The non-Christian is spiritually dead in sin. His ungodly
meditation will only open him to lying demonic influences. His other psychological tools are
merely natural, or human, attempts to resolve his fallen condition..
My natural word is able to penetrate through the ear to the natural part of the mind. For
example, I may be able to convince a person that he should stop smoking and he will do it. On
the other hand, he might agree with me, but opt to do nothing. He’s convinced that it would be
better if he didn’t smoke, but he might have a subconscious attachment that supersedes his
intellectual understanding. He might continue smoking throughout his life and actually kill
himself with cigars or cigarettes. Or maybe he’ll have a heart attack and become frightened. Fear
will change the warnings he has received. This emotional experience is deeper than the
intellectual and may cause him to quit. Then again it might not.
He may say, “I know I’m killing myself, but I just love smoking cigarettes. I don’t want to
quit and I won’t.”
It’s obvious that no human word is going to change this man, not even a fearful verbal
portrait of bad health and death. Some part of his being is buried deeper than his intellect, deeper
than his emotions. Despite his best interests, he will continue because something below the
conscious level is telling him that he needs to keep smoking (or taking drugs, or living in sexual
perversion, etc.), regardless that his destruction surely lies ahead. No word of man—psychiatrist,
psychologist, mother, father, friend, minister—can reach that buried place where soul meets
spirit. Human words can’t solve spiritual problems, just like manmade words—though they can
easily pierce a man’s heart—can’t reach his spirit. The Word of God—sharper than any twoedged sword—can.
Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you, they are spirit and are life (John 6:63).”
God’s word reaches a man’s mind and convinces him. It reaches his emotions and stirs him.
Then uniquely—and this is the norm in meditation—it goes to that dividing point between soul
and spirit and touches a man’s essential self and transforms him. A therapy-reformed alcoholic
is still an alcoholic. A God-transformed alcoholic is no longer an alcoholic. This is because His
Word actually uproots whole concepts—alcoholism, perversion, twisted emotions, selfdestructive tendencies, and so on. No other word can do that. The Holy Spirit penetrates your
innermost being as you open up to His operation, and somehow He removes the wrong and
replaces it with His truth. As you continually mediate on His truth, the Holy Spirit goes on
uprooting the old unhealthy habits that caused you to react irrationally to life. Your part in
meditation is to cooperate with God. Co-operate means that two or more persons work together
toward a common purpose. Meditative cooperation between God and man means that God makes
His Word alive in your heart. You receive that word, let it act in you, and then act it out.
You must say, “God has changed me. I now know the truth and I will act accordingly.” You
must also be faithful to meditate regularly even when you don’t sense any changes at all. Be
assured that God is working in you. It is His will that you ruminate on the Bible’s teachings just
as surely as it is His will that you pray and study. The following Scriptures are a few of the
many that highlight meditation:
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the
path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his
law he meditates day and night (Ps 1:1-20 NASB).”
“When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. (Ps 63:6)”
“I will meditate on all Thy work, and muse on Thy deeds (Ps 77:11 KJV).”
“Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes.Your
testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. (Ps 119:23-24).”
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your
hands. I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land (Ps 143:5-6).”
In the First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, the apostle tells his spiritual son to meditate on
things a minister must do, “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your
progress may be evident to all (1 Tim 4:15).”
Finally, to pull all in perspective, let’s say that I have retired to a quiet place, I am seated in
a comfortable position, I have chosen to meditate on the verse, “You will keep him in perfect
peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” I mull over these words, saying
to the Lord, “My mind is stayed on you, Lord. I understand that you are the source of all peace.
You have given me your peace.” Then, because I have studied the Bible, the Holy Spirit is able
to guide my thinking to other verses, like when Jesus said, “My peace I give to you. My peace I
leave with you,” and “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace....”
Thought after thought floods into my mind about how God has surrounded me with His
peace. I actually begin to feel it. Meanwhile the Holy Spirit is transforming my mind, working
into me the reality that no matter what the circumstances, God’s peace is always with me and I
don’t need to be anxious for anything. Instead of being squeezed into the world’s mold, God is
remolding my being from within. This is meditation as God planned it: divine truth becomes part
of my human belief and experience. I finish my session with the sure knowledge that God is with
me and that with His help I have assaulted—maybe even conquered—another group of wrong
patterns in my mind. I leave my quiet time with the Lord thinking a little more the way Jesus
does.
Of course, meditation does not change my personality for the better overnight, and barring a
miracle, it won’t change you suddenly either. But as you persevere, you’ll notice that bit by bit
you are becoming more like Jesus. The old vices and bad habits are disappearing. Prosperity,
peace, and blessing are becoming your new way of life.
Chapter 8
Does Everybody Have Faith?
As I discussed meditation and how it can help you internalize the Word of God, I made a
very important assumption about you: I assumed that you had faith in our Creator.
Without faith, you can do nothing. And by faith, I am not referring to simple belief but to
credence coupled with godly conduct. Demons believe God exists, but it does them no good
because they don’t obey Him. In contrast, faithful obedience moves you to construct in this
world what you believe in your heart. Satan and his system try to get you to use your faith to
build contrary to God’s will for your life. The Bible calls this building your house on the sand;
when the storms and floods of life come a structure so built will quickly collapse. On the other
hand, the minute you put your belief in God and start to do what the Bible says (remember,
“Faith without works is useless”), you will find yourself the object of enormous pressures that
are trying to keep you squeezed into the world’s mold. It is the old crabology syndrome:
A fisherman on a pier had five crabs in a pot. One of the crustaceans began to crawl out and
another fisherman called, “Watch out! That crabs going to get away.”
The crab owner said, “No, he won’t get out of there. You don’t know anything about
crabology.”
By this time the crab has its pincers and a couple of legs over the lip of the pot and was just
about ready to tumble out. Right then the two crabs on the bottom grabbed it and pulled it down.
Later, another of the crabs tried to get out, and again, its mates dragged it back in. As one or
another of the crabs tried to get out the others pulled it down consistently all day long.
The world—even the Christian world to some extent—is like crabs in a pot. As soon as a
man glimpses something beyond the humdrum, and begins moving in a new, inventive way,
other people get very uncomfortable and try to pull him back down to the norm. This is the
crabology syndrome. Because there is risk in almost every new endeavor, the world—in its
twisted way—works on that man’s emotional, financial, and spiritual insecurity to drag him back
to mediocrity. It takes faith to overcome this pull. Very few people commended or offered to
back Christopher Columbus when he proposed that the earth was round and that you could reach
India by sailing west. Nicholas Copernicus was branded a heretic for saying that the earth
revolved around the sun, and not vice versa. Ridicule, threats, economic sanctions, banishment,
have all been used against men who dared to think and act in innovative ways.
That is why success in doing what your heart knows to be true depends on faith. Columbus
acted on faith—a powerful inward assurance and conviction that something he could not see was
actually there. No one Columbus knew had empirical proof the world was round. He had no
maps, and no histories—only a belief in his heart that God had told him India laid to the west.
Had he listened to most of his contemporaries, he would never have risked his life, his crewmen,
and a considerable fortune in goods and ships. He would have been another crab pulled down
from the rim of the pot. Columbus’ faith, which he translated into action against all the doubts
and misgivings of his fellowmen, changed the world.
Normally faith comes by hearing the Word of God. This can be a special illumination of
scriptural truth, as in Columbus’ case, or through prayerful study and meditation. In any event
the Bible must transform a person’s mind and emotional nature so he understands it is God who
wants him to be successful, or to use Christ’s words, “to bear much fruit.”
Since it is possible to bear little fruit or no fruit at all, I want to distinguish between right
and wrong applications of faith. You could wrongly believe that God did not want you to be
successful, and most likely you never would be. Or without ever taking God and His will into
account you could say, “I’m going to make a pile of money” and start working toward that goal.
Your faith base would not be in God, but in your self-confidence. On that basis you’d have to
fight against everyone else with the same goals. Many have done so, and amassed considerable
fortunes at a horrible cost to themselves and those around them. They are like those rich men of
whom the Apostle James says, “Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which
you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in
a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you
(James 5:4-6).” The end of these men, the Bible clearly reports, is that they will weep and howl
for the miseries that will come upon them and that their very treasurers will consume their flesh
like fire. Such men have achieved financial gains, but they are hardly the picture of success.
They have placed their faith in themselves rather than in their Creator.
On the other hand, faith for success means to believe what the Bible says is true. You must
internalize its teachings through study and meditation guided by the Holy Spirit. You must act
out your belief despite every pressure to the contrary. You can be sure that if God has ordained
something, it will happen in a way that will bring you joy and blessing instead of the ruin and
exploitation that those verses in James speak about.
Faith, then, is agreeing with God that the way He perceives life is true. Let’s say you are a
poor man, you give your life to Jesus and begin reading the Bible, and you find out that God’s
people are called to experience abundance. You look at yourself and your poverty, and say,
“What God says is true. I am a prosperous man.” Your five senses don’t tell you that, but
somehow you grasp that faith is the evidence of things not seen. Your faith is the proof that
though you can’t touch or see your prosperity it is nonetheless real. So you begin to act as if it
were so. You believe on the inside and begin acting out belief. The rule is: You must be
prosperous inside before you ever will be prosperous outside. You must have peace inside before
you can emanate peace to those around you. You must have interior mental and emotional
stability before you can manifest those qualities to others. You must perceive life as God
perceives it; all else leads to failure.
Now a man asks you, “Do you have any money in your pockets?”
“No,” you reply.
“Oh, then you must be poor.”
Your faith is now put to the test. If you perceive yourself as the son or daughter of the God
who owns the entire universe, and who can make anything He wants at any moment He desires,
then your proper response should be something like, “Sir, even though I do not have any money
in my pockets, I am a prosperous person, and one day you will see the result of that prosperity.”
The average person hearing your reply will not believe you. He is ruled by his senses and a
fact, fact, fact, conclusion mentality. As we have seen, there is grand difference between facts
and truth. The man asks again, “You don’t have any money in your pockets, right?”
You reply, “Right.” That’s a fact, but it has nothing to do with the truth. Truth is that which
comes from God Himself. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of Truth. What you observe is a fact: You have no money in your pockets, What you
can’t see (at least at this moment) is the truth: God has made you prosperous.
Your questioner continues, “Do you have a business?” A business, at least, could carry the
promise of prosperity.
“No.”
“Do you have stocks, bonds, gold, silver, or money in the bank?”
“No”, you answer.
“Do you own any property or expensive goods?”
“No.”
The man finally sums up his assessment, “My man, you’re dirt poor.”
That’s fact, fact, fact, conclusion. You don’t deny the facts. You don’t protest, “My pockets
are really full of money and I have enormous bank account.” You simply don’t confuse the truth
of what God says with current conditions.
Yet, how is it that you can claim to be prosperous in the face of facts? The reason is that
you understand in your heart that when God speaks, He speaks absolutely. He talks of things that
are not visible as if they were already there. For example, when He appeared to Abraham when
the latter was an old, old man with a wife who had been sterile since her youth and who had long
gone through menopause, He said, “I have made you the father of many nations.” Note carefully
He did not say, “I will make you the father of many nations.” For God, everything is. Again, the
Old Testament prophet Isaiah, looking ahead to Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, reported,
“By whose stripes we are healed.” That means that God has healed us of our sicknesses, not that
He will heal us. In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter, looking back to the cross, quotes
Isaiah, “By whose stripes you are healed.” Peter did not say we would be healed, but we are.
In the case of Abraham and of our healing, the facts are clear. Abraham and Sarah were too
old to have children, and Sarah was sterile besides. Abraham did not believe the facts, he
believed God, and from his loins sprang the Israelites, the Arabs, and other nations. When we
encounter a physically ill Christian, that’s a fact. The truth is that Jesus has already provided for
his healing by His suffering.
In the same way that Abraham believed Sarah would have a child, you must know deep
inside that God has made you prosperous. This truth must be as absolutely real to you as it is to
God. You must see yourself as healthy, as emotionally and mentally stable, and as materially
successful. Abraham did not need to understand how God was going to accomplish what He
promised. He just needed to know what God said was true. You may not know how God will
bring prosperity into your life, but you don’t need to know. You just need to believe, and God
will show you at the right moment what steps to take.
There are, of course, some very practical biblical principles you can apply to promote the
proper environment for the growth of God’s truth in your life. I will present two of them, which
I call “Faith Pictures” and “Believe, Confess and Act,” in the next chapters. Meanwhile, if God is
speaking the reality of prosperity to you, don’t try to intellectualize or rationalize how He will
work in your life. Don’t try to figure anything out. The Holy Spirit will show you. Tell God,
“Thank you for prosperity. I am going to forget all the ideas I had about not being a success,
because I believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Next, you must realize that Satan will quickly assail you with doubts. He will try to get you
to question whether God really wants the best for you. He will try to get you to think, plot, and
plan ways to get rich rather than to wait for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Abraham tried to “Help
God” by having a child by his wife’s maid. That son, Ishmael, did not receive God’s special
blessing. In fact he became a sorrow to Abraham. The trouble continues to this day in the
millennia-old conflict between the descendants of Ishmael—the Arabs—and the descendants of
Isaac—today’s Israelis.
Be humble. Say to God, “I don’t want to take matters into my own hands the way Abraham
did. I know you will show me what to do, even though I may not understand the why’s and
wherefore’s.” Teach me to trust you. I promise to follow your leading. As I do, I know you will
give me understanding and success.”
Chapter 9
Faith Pictures
It takes faith to be a success, but what if you don’t have any faith? What if you don’t have
any confidence in yourself? What if you’re afraid to take a chance? What if those around you are
out to get you? Worse, what if you think God has abandoned you, or is punishing you?
Is there any hope?
Yes, there is. If you are reading this book God is already telling you that He is ready to help
you. For starters, you have to change that old failure picture in your mind to a powerful faith
picture. Did you ever stop to think that much of what men develop in this world is the result of
pictures in their minds—pictures that were translated into action? Take a building. The architect
put that mental picture on paper. Other men saw his vision and provided the money, materials,
and manpower to make it a reality. But when did the building become a building? When it was
done? Or when the architect conceived the idea? This chapter will give you the answer.
The Bible says we are part of the heavenly New Jerusalem whose Architect and Builder is
Jesus Himself. When He conceives an idea, it IS. When He communicates that idea to you, it is
up to you to build regardless of the “What if’s” in your life. In short, you take God’s faith
pictures for your life and translate them into action. The result is success against any odds.
We find an extraordinary example of how these faith pictures can totally transform your
personality AND circumstances in the story of Gideon. If ever a man had lost faith, developed a
coward’s heart, and was sure God was punishing him, it was he. The sixth chapter of the Book of
Judges relates that one day Gideon was down in a wine press threshing wheat to hide it from the
Midianites who were ravaging the land. (The Midianites, by the way, were descendants of
Abraham, but not by his wife Sarah). These wine presses were actually stone-lined pits. Anyone
working inside one would not be visible to a passerby.
Suddenly the Angel of the Lord appeared to him saying, “The Lord is with you, O valiant
warrior.”
Gideon was anything but a warrior. He was hiding out. His reply to the Angel of the Lord
clearly showed the state of his faith, “Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this
happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not
the Lord bring us up from Egypt’. But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand
of the Midianites.” Some faith picture! He saw his nation and himself cast off by God and
battered about by an oppressor nation.
However, his unbelief and his fear, did not deter the angel, who said, “Go in this your
strength and deliver Israel from the hand of the Midian, Have I not set you?”
Notice how deeply a negative attitude has ingrained itself in Gideon. You would think that if
an angel told you that you had been chosen by God to be the great military leader of a nation,
you would believe him. Gideon didn’t. He said, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold my
family is the least of Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” His negative faith
picture had so twisted his thinking that his statements didn’t line up with reality. First of all,
being the youngest son did not mean he wasn’t capable of decisive, successful action. It was just
an excuse for unbelief. Secondly, Gideon had lost the perspective of his own worth. The truth
was that his family wasn’t the least in his tribe. He had at least 10 servants at his disposition and
bulls available for sacrifices. Those 10 servants were men who were willing to take a chance
with the right leadership.
Despite Gideon’s lack of confidence, the Lord replied, “Surely, I will be with you, and you
shall defeat Midian as one man.” The point that God is making here is that even though Gideon
did not see the assets he had, it didn’t matter. He was not being called to trust in goods anyway.
God did not say to him, “Look, Gideon, you have servants and food, so things really are not that
bad.” He said, in effect, “Gideon, if your image of yourself is that you are afraid, you are a
nobody, and that God has abandoned you. So what? I can still use you to save the nation if you
believe what I say and act on it.”
This is true for you today. It does not matter if you are broke, if you are deep in debt. It
doesn’t matter if you have no education, and no understanding of finances or business. If you
believe God wants you to prosper, and you follow the principles in this book, you will
experience success over the long term. God will be with you, and He will instruct you along the
way.
This is what happened to Gideon. The Word of God began to affect him, and though he
considered himself extremely poor, he brought a goat kid and some flour to the Angel of the
Lord and offered it as a sacrifice. The normal tendency of an impoverished man (as Gideon
considered himself) is to hide what food he has and jealously guard it for his family’s exclusive
use. Gideon gave food to the angel. His vision of himself, which was far from reality, was
getting synchronized with the truth. That is why instead of hoarding, he freely offered to give a
sacrifice. He still had his fears, however, for when the angel of the Lord disappeared He
suddenly thought he would die. God had to say to him, “Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not
die.” When doubts and fears surround you, the assurance God gave Gideon is available to you
through prayer and the Scriptures.
The next step in Gideon’s development is God’s command that he tear down an altar the
Israelites had erected to false gods, and to build an altar to Jehovah in its place. Here God is
showing him that the reason the Midianites were devastating the land was not because God had
abandoned them, but because the Israelites had broken the agreement of Deuteronomy, Chapter
28, and were worshipping false gods. The step now involved not only to stop doing what was
debilitating both Gideon and the other Israelites, but to do something POSITIVE in its place.
You can’t eliminate negativity completely without turning to positive action.
The amazing part is that because Gideon finally believed God, new courage started to flow
into his life. The test was this: God asked him to tear down the idol altar, but not secretly. He
told Gideon to then make an altar and offer a sacrifice on it. This takes time, enough time that
the builders of the altar to the false gods were going to find out and seek revenge. Gideon knew
that.
The men of the city came to Gideon’s father, Joash, and said, “Bring out your son that he
may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which
was beside it.” These men still foolishly thought their idols could help them. Their faith picture
of the true God had dropped to such a point they were disposed to kill a man who tried to restore
true worship.
But Gideon’s growing courage had begun to inspire others. Joash stood up to the men who
wanted to kill his son, telling them, “Will you contend for Baal, or will you deliver him?
Whoever will plead for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for
himself because someone has torn his altar down.” Joash even went as far as to say that those
who continued to back idol worship would themselves be killed, thus putting his own life in
danger with that of his son.
Instead of killing Gideon, the people joined him. By this time he was beginning to believe
that he really was the warrior that the Angel of the Lord had called him. Then the Spirit of the
Lord came upon him and he called the people of Israel to follow him. When the enemies came
against Israel he had an army of 32,000 men, which he reduced to 300 who led the initial assault
that in the end overturned the entire Midianite force, killing 120,000 men. The man who had
hidden from his enemies in a wine press had become the military hero of the nation. He had
traded his own portrait of himself as a poor, weak, downtrodden man for God’s concept of him
as a mighty and valiant warrior. This is the result of a godly faith picture!
In the New Testament we find a similar transformation in the life of the apostle Peter.
Peter’s brother Andrew brought him to meet Jesus. The latter looked at him and said, “You are
Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas”—that is Peter, meaning “a rock.” For all
the indications we find in the Gospels, Peter was not a rock. He was a very impetuous man, who
actually cursed and denied that he knew Jesus on the night before the Lord’s crucifixion. Later,
in the city of Antioch, he was eating and drinking with the Gentiles, a custom prohibited by
Jewish Law, when some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem arrived. Instead of upholding the
freedom from the Law of Moses that he had in the Gospel, he went back to observing the old
customs, so much so that other disciples followed him. The Apostle Paul had to upbraid him
severely for his dishonesty and weakness.
Jesus knew Peter’s weakness, but He also knew something else. He knew that Peter could
be transformed if he accepted a new picture of himself and acted on it. That is why the Lord
called him “Rock” wherever they went. By the end of his life, Peter indeed was a rock of the
faith. The man who denied that he knew Jesus died defending the faith of the Gospel. He had
adapted himself to the truth as God saw it.
The story of David, second king of Israel, is another excellent example of a faith picture.
While David was a youth, the prophet Samuel anointed him king of Israel though King Saul still
ruled the country. So great was that faith picture in him and his trust that God would make it real
that even when his relationship with Saul soured the king sought to kill him, he continued firmly.
On two occasions he had Saul’s life in his hands, but refused to destroy him. He knew that he did
not have to kill anyone to become what God ordained him to be. In that sense, he learned what
Abraham had to learn the hard way, not to use human methods to bring about the promises of
God.
When Saul was finally killed in battle, David did not rejoice that the man who tired to kill
him was now dead and the way was open for him to be king. Rather in a beautiful eulogy written
after he heard the news of Saul’s and his son Jonathan’s deaths, he said, “Saul and Jonathan,
beloved and pleasant in their life, and in their death they were not parted; they were swifter than
eagles, they were stronger than lions (II Sam 1:23).”
Only a man with a very deep sense of God and a sense of his own destiny could speak like
that of a man who constantly pursued him. A lesser man--a man without a faith picture of
himself as successful in God--would be very thankful for the death of his enemy and his enemy’s
heir, and would rejoice. An insecure ruler often eliminates every trace of his predecessors—
statues, monuments, every histories. David held a picture in his heart of himself as God’s
anointed. He knew he did not have to depend on the whims of his countrymen for his kingship.
He had heard from God.
David’s faith picture, Gideon’s, Abraham’s, Joseph’s Joshua’s, Job’s, those of all the great
men and women of the Bible, were put there by God for our instruction, The Bible is saturated
with examples that you need to meditate on. As you do, you will internalize them and instead of
being pictures from the outside they will become extremely real inside your heart. You won’t be
able to imagine yourself any other way than the way the Bible says that you are—as a son or
daughter of God.
Now many faith pictures are attached to doing some act. For example, giving to the poor.
Proverbs 22:9 says, “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the
poor.” That is a very simple picture. You might be a stingy person, but you read this verse and
find out that God will bless you if you are generous. You form a picture of yourself as a generous
person. A generous man not only IS, he DOES. So you give to the poor, and as you do, you
actually become that generous person, and the blessing soon overtakes you.
Psalm 91 is a good example of a picture of protection for you and your family. Verse two
says, “I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.’.”
You see yourself protected by God though Satan is constantly trying to hurt you, or ruin you.
God keeps you out of his snares and traps. He will be a shield and bulwark for you. You picture
yourself as a person who has been freed of anxiety because God is watching over you.
Verse 5 says, “You will not be afraid of the terror by night.” Who of us has not experienced
dread or fear in dark places? God gives a picture of his children as being free from fear. The
verse continues, “or the arrow that flies by day.” This is the chance attack. These are people who
live with apprehension that some crazed person will mug or kill them for no reason at all. God
says his followers need not fear that. Nor do they need fear the sickness or pestilence mentioned
in verse 6, or untimely death in circumstance in which others are dying on every side.
Verse 10 assures, “No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.” If you
will allow this picture from God’s heart to take form in yours through meditation on this faith
picture, this verse will free you to graciously minister to people with contagious disease.
Finally, in verse 14, 15 and 16, are some sweeping promises. Picture yourself as the one to
whom God is saying: Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him, I will set him
securely on high, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me and I will answer him
in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him, with long life I will satisfy him and let him behold
my salvation.
Using this scripture as a base I personally see myself totally protected by God. I say to
people, “I’m invulnerable. No one can overturn or defeat me. Only God can do that.” I believe
the man who comes against me comes against his own life. Why? Because it is God who puts us
where we are and sustains us—that’s what he did with David, Joshua and Joseph.
Unfortunately, I didn’t always believe that way. I had a negative faith picture, just as Gideon
did before he took God’s picture of him into his heart. I felt for years that bad things were always
happening to me. Every frightening circumstance caused me to rush into wild decisions to
protect myself. I just didn’t respond rationally to pressures. I used to have terrible nightmares.
Sometimes I would wake up paralyzed. What I saw in those dreams disturbed me throughout the
day.
Then I discovered Psalm 91 and many other faith pictures in the Bible. I saw that many of
them were repetitions of the same ideas, as if God wanted to make sure I received the message:
God is with me. God is in me. God is before me as a shield. God is behind me as a bulwark. I
began going to sleep at night saying “I am a son of God. I am lying down in the arms of the
Lord.”
After a time the Lord gave me another faith picture to help me conquer those nightmares
that were affecting even my waking hours. It was John 10:29, where Jesus, speaking of his
disciples, affirmed, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able
to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” I began to form a picture of myself securely in my
Heavenly Father’s hand. I confessed, “Not only is it impossible to pluck me out of my Father’s
hand, the enemy can’t get near enough to disturb my sleep. Now I am lying down in His arms,
and I am filled with the Holy Spirit. My mind cannot be disturbed because the Bible says I have
the Mind of Christ.”
I found Scriptures like the one that says, “The Angels of the Lord encamps around those
who fear Him, and rescues them (Psalm 34:7).” I saw angels surrounding me, taking charge over
me. I saw myself going to sleep in peace, and waking up refreshed and calm. Those faith pictures
from the Word of God internally changed me to such a place that satanic thoughts could no
longer get a foothold in my mind. The nightmares went away, and have never come back.
On another occasion when I was deeply involved in researching what God had to say about
material prosperity I encountered in Malachi 3:10 this admonition, “Bring the whole tithe into
the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of
hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no
more need.’” This is a wonderful faith picture. With my physical eyes I have looked up to the
heavens and I have seen the sun, the moon , stars, snow, rain, airplanes, clouds, skydivers—but I
have never see a window. I began to mediate on this very verse and eventually I could see those
windows in the heavens.
One morning I woke up and it seemed like the whole roof of my house was open and I could
see the heavens. The windows of heaven were open and all kinds of packages were dropping
into my bedroom. They filled the whole room. The vision lingered with me for hours afterward.
Something real had taken place. God had shown me that the blessings of prosperity were already
mine. All I had to do was open the packages. You’ll notice that this faith picture involved action.
I had to honor God with my tithes first. Then God sent the blessings.
Another kind of action is sketched in Psalm 1, which starts out “How blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the
seat of scoffers!” Here is a clear picture of a man following a progression: walk, stand, sit. That
means coming into contact with sin, considering it, and finally getting involved in it.
Opposed to this negative faith picture is another about the godly man: “But his delight is in
the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Here is a man who is saturating
his mind with truth. As a result he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which
yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
The picture is of a luxurious, fruitful tree. I see myself that way because I have meditated deeply
on that faith picture. I see myself rooted deeply in the love of God. I know that whatever I do
will prosper.
People ask me “How come you talk that way? How do you know what you are doing will
prosper?”
It is certainly not because I am smart, or I can predict the future. I have simply come to
believe the faith pictures God has put in the Bible. If God says that if I don’t associate with
sinners but delight myself in meditating on His law day and night, I WILL prosper.” So I stay
away from sinful men. I get my spiritual counsel from God and from godly men. I listen to the
Holy Spirit. I try to walk in His truth as best as I understand. That is why I expect prosperity. I
expect that the world and all the forces of darkness must ultimately shape themselves to the
vision God has given me. Similarly, you must believe that circumstances will alter so that the
faith pictures God has given you will certainly come about.
If you don’t lay hands on positive faith pictures and make them reality in your own being
through mediation and practice you will move through life pushed around by circumstances,
jammed into the world’s mold, a perennial victim of the crabology syndrome. If you chose to
envision goals that are not according to God’s will, your end will be no better than if you had
done nothing. You might wind up rich, powerful, or famous, but in terms of success as I have
defined it, you will be a failure.
Let’s go back to Abraham. He was a man who believed God when he said, “I have made
you the father of many nations.” Abraham carried a picture in his heart of himself at the head of
a vast multitude of descendants. With the eyes of faith he saw the mighty nations that had sprung
from his loins, and he saw Israel inhabiting the land of promise. His faith pictures steadied his
course throughout the vicissitudes of life. And he obeyed God. As a consequence he became a
very rich man. He was no poor nomad wandering around the Middle Eastern desert. He had
cattle, horses, camels, gold , silver, servants, slaves. He also had a nephew named Lot, who
walked with Abraham and became so rich that the land could not support the herds of both. So
they decided to go in separate directions. Abraham gave Lot first choice.
Lot looked over the plain around the Dead Sea which in those days was like a rich, lush
garden. He knew Sodom and Gommorah with all their terrible sinfulness were down there, but
Lot had a picture of himself as a wealthy, successful man taking his ease among the pleasures
and comforts of civilization. No more wandering around in the mountains and desert living in a
tent the way his uncle Abraham did. Lot’s was a worldly faith picture. We find that by the time
the angels arrived in Sodom to destroy the city for its wickedness, Lot was one of the principal
men, standing among sinners and sitting with scoffers. His daughters were engaged to local men,
and he had accommodated himself to the gross paganism that surrounded him.
All this is in contrast to Abraham, who the Bible says, looked for a city whose architect and
builder was God. Yes, Abraham had an earthly faith picture of being the father of many nations
yet, he also knew his true destiny and his eternal security were in God. He did not mix himself
in the sinful affairs of men the way Lot did with his purely selfish and earthbound faith picture.
In the end Lot lost everything because he had built his life around the wrong vision. His riches
perished in the brimstone and fire that fell on Sodom. His wife died when she turned to look
back on the city. His two daughters committed incest with him and his sons by those incestuous
relationships became the forefathers of two demon-worshipping nations.
What ruined Lot was a wrong faith picture.
To be successful, the pictures formed in our mind of what we are going to do must be in
agreement with the Bible in every detail otherwise like Lot, we will find ourselves fleeing from
our own wrong choices. The Bible talks about vain and evil imaginations as being an
entranceway to destruction. The devil knows this, and has converted our minds into a
battleground. The world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly bombarding our imaginations
with vanities. At the same time God is trying to implant realities in our minds which come in the
form of pictures—the kind of pictures we have seen in the cases of Gideon, and David. Now that
you are somewhat familiar with the idea that God expresses these realities in faith pictures. I am
going to show you how you can grow in your own ability to discern between godly positive
pictures and negative ones.
Keep in mind that we think in pictures. That is why many of the first written languages—
and even some of today’s—were pictographs. Let’s say that I want to go to the store to buy a box
of cereal. As I think about that action, I see myself on the street, I see myself going into the store,
going to the shelf, finding the brand of cereal I want, and paying for it. Picture, picture, picture.
Words merely symbolize those pictures. Thus through words and pictures directed toward your
mind, Satan tries to get you to visualize fear (like my youthful nightmares,), greed, lust, anything
that will cause you to turn away from the right and holy calling God has for your life. God
implants in your mind a picture of a virtuous and godly wife. Satan barrages you with cheap sex
and lewd thoughts. God paints you a portrait of yourself as vigorous and healthy. Satan blasts
you with ideas of failing health and reduced stamina. God says you can walk through the valley
of the shadow of death and fear no evil. Satan tells you that one of these days a car is going to
jump the curb and kill you. These thought pictures from Satan are really fiery darts that will burn
you if you don’t maintain a shield of faith around your mind.
That is not to say the enemy will only hit you with obviously negative thoughts. Napoleon
Hill states in his book, Think and Grow Rich, “The imagination is literally the workshop wherein
are fashioned all plans created by man.” All sorts of thoughts come into our minds that we can
elaborate into pictures that in themselves are not necessarily wrong. For example, being rich is
not wrong; pursuing after riches is. Let’s say that a man pictures himself as wealthy, then he
makes that a PRIORITY. His emotions will begin to align with the thoughts of riches in his
mind and soon, even if he is a man who had some godly tendencies, he will start conceiving of
ways to get that money that are contrary to God’s purpose. He may eventually end up wealthy
by diligently applying his faith pictures, but he won’t glorify God, nor will he have peace in his
heart.
The men who engineered the Tower of Babel had a tremendous faith picture, but it did not
come from God. It came from the devil. They attempted to build a tower whose top would reach
into heaven, or at least give them a closer way to observe the secrets that they thought were
locked up in the stars and planets. They assumed, like many of the ancient astronomers and
astrologers, that heaven was not very high at all. They may have had the idea that since God had
wiped out the earth by flood if they could get into the heaven they would be like God That is
exactly what the Bible tells us Lucifer said, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne
above the stars of God... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like
the Most High. (Is 14:13,14).“ To us the Tower of Babel sounds foolish, but is it any more
foolish than the Nazi’s idea of a Master Race and of the extermination of the Jews, or of the
former Soviet Union’s stated goal of world communism?
God didn’t think the Babel builders were foolish. He looked at the construction and said,
“Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began
to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them (Genesis 11:6
NASB).” That is a very powerful statement about the force behind a faith picture, especially one
that unifies men behind a common goal (I’ll explain the unity principle in detail in a later
chapter). Before the flood, God remarked that all mankind’s imaginations were evil so He
destroyed the world. At Babel men again were imagining evil, only this time God decided not to
destroy them but to confound their language so they couldn’t easily communicate the pictures in
their minds, arrive at a unified faith picture, and achieve any purpose they chose. That powerful
imagination faculty resides in all of us, and the only sure way to use it is to turn it over to God.
Say to your Heavenly Father, “Father, you are the one who controls my imagination. You
direct me. You bring faith pictures from your Word to my mind. You protect me from vain and
sinful imaginations. You lead me along pathways that are healthy for my body, soul, mind and
spirit.”
With this sort of prayer you open the door for the Holy Spirit to use the Scriptures to wash
your mind of those wrong pictures that have limited your true success. Before you knew Jesus as
Lord and Savior you were subject to evil, wicked imaginations. In Christ, you tune your minds
toward the Lord. The more clearly biblical faith pictures take hold in your thoughts and
meditations, the more your response will be automatic when a contrary thought comes along.
The reason why many Christians vacillate in the face of temptation (and what is temptation but
sin pleasantly pictured) is because God’s pictures are not so strongly planted in their minds that
they quickly dismiss any wrong thoughts. They are subject to negative influences that weaken
and attack them, and Satan is clever enough to send them temptations that harmonize with those
wrong pictures they have not cleaned out of their minds yet.
Again, negative influences—if you listen to them—will lead you astray from the course God
has set for you. It is interesting that one of the words for sin means basically, “To miss the
mark,” as an archer misses the bull’s eye. The archer’s plan is to keep his eye steady on that
target and let fly the arrow. If the eye strays, his arm will automatically follow and he will miss
the mark. Negative influences have a similar effect. Our minds wander from God’s faith pictures,
and almost without realizing it, we find ourselves far from the place where God wants us to be.
That is what happened to Lot. The Bible does not say he was a gross sinner like the people of
Sodom. St. Peter says he was a righteous man vexed by the filthy lives of those around him. Yet
somehow his mind’s eye had switched its focus from the picture God had of him to the one he
wanted for himself and he ended up hiding in a cave after the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah—
afraid of the inhabitants of the land.
I can hardly emphasize enough how important it is to let God-inspired faith pictures be the
only factor that motivates you. Being a Christian—knowing God—is not enough to keep you
out of the path of earthly failure. You must meditate on the word of God day and night and let it
change you as it changed Gideon, David, Peter and so many others. As you fill your life with the
Scriptures, each verse that becomes a living picture in your mind will be a light—like a candle—
shining into the darkness. No amount of darkness can swallow up the light. Every time you
respond to the word of God positively, saying, “Yes, Lord, that’s me.” You have described me in
that passage of Scripture”, another light comes on. Eventually, the light in your life will be
brighter than the midday sun.
Finally, before we turn to the subject of how to translate faith pictures into action, I want to
drive home a point. You remember that Peter did not decide on his own to develop a positive
picture. Jesus called him, “Rock,” time and again over a period of years until the change became
apparent. In the same way Jesus helped Peter form a faith picture, we can also help others form
theirs. This is very clear in the husband-wife and parent-child relationships were negative
pictures can develop very quickly..
When you begin speaking to your family members, telling each of them, “You are a
wonderful, godly person (husband, wife, son, daughter, parent).” It takes time, but because there
is usually some degree of trust in most families, family members will begin to overcome their
negative faith pictures with a little of your help. When you begin to speak positively to others,
they might think, “What is he saying that for? He’s after something.” Or “He’s just making fun
of me.” Those false defenses will soon drop. Family members will begin to think, “Well, maybe
it is true. Maybe he thinks I am that wonderful person after all.”
This is the beginning of transformation. If family members speak God’s faith pictures about
one another they will dispel all accumulated resentments and bad attitudes of the past, and bring
their families into a relationship of love and unity. The same principle works on every other
human relationship. God planned it that way. He put the power of life and death in the tongue.
The tongue has the unique ability to translate images from one person’s mind to another’s,
whether as godly, faith pictures or as devastating put-downs. We must let God take the beautiful
and marvelous pictures from His mind and put them in our minds, and help others to see them
too. They will push out all negativity. We must believe these faith pictures, whether they refer to
us or those around us. We must confess them with the power of our tongues, speaking life to
ourselves and others.
Chapter 10
Believe, Confess and Act
Ranier Mendelsohn developed a very clever money-making plan some years ago. The idea
came to him about how to channel a stream on his land through a spillway and generate
electricity. At that time the government was giving tax incentives to private citizens who wanted
to produce their own power, and there were even guarantees that the public utility companies
would buy the excess production. Ranier, being an electrician, quickly drew up the basic
blueprints up in his mind’s eye. He could see the stream diversion, the little power plant, and the
electricity flowing into the utility company lines.
Today, if you drop by his house he’ll probably tell you about the electrical self-sufficiency
plan he developed. He has great faith that not only will it generate all the electricity he needs for
his own use, but actually provide him with cash from the sale of excess electricity. There is just
one catch: There is no plant. Ranier never translated his faith picture into reality. Or as the Bible
says, “Faith without works is dead!” It is a sad fact that many people live in a world of plans, but
not of action. The famous short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is an example of the
kind of pictures so many develop in their minds, but which have no bearing on the reality of their
lives. A faith picture is not a faith picture unless it is followed by action. Without action, it is a
fantasy. Satan wants you to be a harmless dreamer in your own fantasy land.
On the other hand, the principles in the Bible--aligned with God’s will--have the power to
take any set of circumstances and conform them into reality. As you act out your faith pictures
they become real. This works on any level—spiritual or material. These principles even work
when the person doing them is not a Christian, but simply has stumbled on some truth from
God’s Word. Spiritual principles, like natural ones, are universal: it does not matter who applies
them. God established the principle of gravity and the principle works for the grossest sinners
and the greatest saints. God established the principle, “Give and it will be given to you,” and it
works for believers and unbelievers. The difference is that a spiritual principle applied on a
material level will only have material results; whereas a spiritual principle applied in the context
of glorifying God will have eternal results.
A man might say to himself, “My goal is to make a million dollars and retire in 20 years. To
do so, I need help in my businesses, so I am going to look for competent workers, pay them high
salaries, offer them bonuses and profit-sharing, and treat them as well as I can. That way they
will be loyal and hard-working.”
That man understands that to get, you have to give, as opposed to the world’s teaching that
to get, you have to find someone to give to you. Or worse, to get you have to be like those rich
men whom St. James condemned for robbing their employees, which is getting by taking. Let’s
suppose the man achieves his goal. He’s translated his faith picture into action and he is now a
retired millionaire. But does that mean he has done God’s will? That he has eternal life? That he
is joyful, peaceful, loving? Not at all! It just means he has applied a godly principle isolated from
the total plan of God and he has succeeded. True prosperity is not material success, it is a total
involvement in what God wants. God, and He alone, gives us the complete formula for success.
That is why when I speak of the principle of “Believe, Confess and Act” and of “Faith Pictures,”
I mean that first, what you have pictured in your mind must be in agreement with the whole
counsel of the Bible, and that second, the Holy Spirit must tell you personally to put in action
what you have planned. You must want what God wants. This is the baseline for all permanent
success.
Just recently two friends, Jack and Arlene, who I had been instructing in the principles of
godly prosperity visited my office. Convinced that God wanted them to learn to be good
stewards of their income, they had been giving 10 percent of their earnings to their church as a
tithe, and setting aside an equal amount for investment. Up to the time they started this budget
they were never able to save any money. The didn’t believe they could. No matter how much
they made, they used it all every month--year in and year out. They started saving after I had
advised them, “You have to stop spending everything you make. Hold back a pre-determined
amount and save it for investment. If you believe God wants you to prosper materially, take the
first steps, and He will come to your aid.”
They decided that once they had saved up $1,000 they would invest it by buying shares of a
mutual fund. Now in my office they laid out 10 bills across the desk. $100 denominations. Jack
explained, “We saved $700. Then Arlene got a phone call from her mom right out of the blue.
Her mom said, ‘I just want to tell you that your grandmother left you an inheritance. It’s not
much. Just a little bit so don’t get excited. I have been holding it for several years. I just recently
felt that I should let you know about it and give it to you.’”
“Arlene asked, ‘How much is it, mom?”
“Her mom replied, ‘Like I said: don’t get excited. It’s only $300.00.’”
Jack and Arlene had achieved their initial goal with help from a totally unexpected quarter. I
believe God was saying to them, you decided to handle your finances in a responsible way. You
have saved $700. Here is the rest to get you started in investments.” The inheritance was there all
the time. Why didn’t it come before? Because God knew they would have spent it.
Their experience is a classic example of “Believe, Confess and Act.” First they developed a
faith picture that God wanted them not only out of debt, but actually doing so well financially
that they had enough to give and to invest. They believed God wanted this for them. They
CONFESSED their plan. They told each other. They told me. They told friends what they were
doing. Then they ACTED. The first thing they did when Jack received his paycheck was to send
savings directly to the bank. Meanwhile, God began moving in the invisible realm to bless them.
Before they believed God, they perceived themselves as living from hand to mouth even though
they had decent income. Circumstances continually required them to spend all they had.
Unexpected needs moved them; they did not move circumstances. When they changed to do
God’s bidding as they understood it, their circumstance fell into line. The point is this: What
God wants for us is what will come to pass once we grasp His plan and act it out, whether or not
we understand it.
To transform the world around you, you must expend life. Thought without action is
fantasy. Combining your life with God’s life to bring about His purpose is an unbeatable
combination. In your meditations you will find out what God’s particular purpose is for you. In
your faith pictures you will find the plan to carry out that purpose. That is your personal vision.
In your confession of this truth, you will commit yourself to action, and in the action God will
help you by moving the entire universe if He must. This is not positive thinking, or some other
worldly method. You can think and act as positively as you want, but you will never attain
ultimate success until what you want is what God wants for you. You may experience limited
success; “ I will be a famous doctor.” “I will be rich.” “I will write a great novel.” “I will be
mayor of this city.” But the larger your finite goals, the greater are your chances for frustration
because you enter into a competition with all the other people who are working toward the same
goals.
Let’s say I desire intensely to be president of the United States. We can assume that other
people have the same goal, and that the chance of my being elected is incredibly slim. Why?
Because being president is a very limited and specialized calling. Obviously, positive thinking
isn’t going to work because the Bible says that God is the one who establishes kings and
governors in their offices. Positive thinking works better in areas of “Personal Improvement.”
However, the sharpest difference between following God’s purpose and manifesting the desires
of positive thinking or any similar systems is this: Positive thinking is one man (perhaps in
conjunction with a few others) trying to make his desire real. “Believe, Confess, and Act” is
teaming up with God to bring about HIS desire. If God tells me He wants me to be president, my
faith picture is no longer a human desire. It is a divine mandate. As I act on the picture He has
placed in my mind all the circumstance will arrange themselves to conform to this plan as the
Holy Spirit leads me step by step. If this sounds farfetched, it is exactly what happened to David
when God chose him to be king of Israel.
Of course, being king or president of a county is a rare calling that would take a special
revelation from the Holy Spirit before a Christian would want to pursue such a course. There is
no way I could determine that God wanted me to be a king or president by reading the Bible.
However, receiving such a direction from God is in no way contrary to the Bible, either. It is
within the realm of Christian experience. On the other hand, there are literally hundreds of
Scriptures that tell me that God wants me to have an abundant life. I don’t have to wait for a
special calling. I can appropriate the prosperity pictures in the Word, apply them to my
circumstances, and act them out with coincidence.
I want to emphasize that believing and acting on faith pictures is not a state of mind you can
work up by telling yourself that something is so. That is human endeavor, not God working in
you. Suppose you have read a few of the prosperity Scriptures and decide to develop a faith
picture, believe it, confess it and act on it. You say, “Here is my goal”. I am going to have
$200.000 in cash 10 years from today. I will get the money by rendering service as a salesman. I
will develop a sales program and put it into action. I already feel money in my hands. The rest is
in an account now, and waiting to be transferred to me. This money is the result of my successful
sales campaigns.”
You repeat this over and over (confession). There is just one problem: You haven’t
received a word from God. Your faith picture is self-generated. As long as you have enough will
power and energy to keep keying yourself up, your plan can go on working. When you run out of
energy, your success ends. God is not interested in you or anyone expending your life in the
pursuit of money, and He’s not going to cooperate with you in realizing self-centered ambitions.
Yet, the minute you get in step with His plans, He adds His life to yours, and since His supply on
energy is unlimited there is no way for you to wear down before achieving your God-given
goals. When it is His plan He moves everything toward that end. Isaiah 65:24 says of our
Heavenly Father, “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer.” God is making a
powerful statement here. He knows, for instance, that five years from now you are going to need
certain things as you act to fulfill the faith picture He has given you. He is already moving
people and events in this world so that when you arrive at that certain moment and pray for what
you need, everything will be in place for you to receive a swift answer. That is essentially what
happened to my friends Jack and Arlene. An intelligent God was working with them, anticipating
their needs, and waiting for the proper moment to bless them. Believe that He is doing that for
you. This book, these very pages, are coming to you at exactly the right time for you to put them
into action. You are not reading this by accident. God wove you in your mother’s womb and
placed certain gifts and spiritual characteristics and a special destiny in you. You have been
made in such a way that you can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens you. Pray
and meditate. Discover your special purpose in life. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the
picture—the plan—of how and what God wants you to be. Above all, act out what God shows
you. Dreams and fantasies will never satisfy you, but doing God’s bidding will bring you
immense joy. Believe, confess, act—these three will transform you as you build for eternity in
this present life.
Section 2
Chapter 11
Without Doubt, Security Is for You
It is faith that makes us successful builders, and doubt that moves us to tear down that
we’ve constructed in spite of every rational argument. Doubt can feed on you, immobilize you,
and eventually destroy you. James 1:4-8 says that if you lack wisdom, ask it from God, but “But
let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he
is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Recently a friend decided to join a missionary team to another city. He and his wife were
convinced that God wanted them to help start a new church. Roland and Suzy went with an
arrangement that the church would help them financially for four months so he could get a job
and get established. He was going on the team not as a pastor or an ordained elder, but as a
helper. After six months all his job possibilities had fallen through, his car had broken down
several times, and his wife had some medical problems. He called me up. “Do you think the
Lord wants me to go back to my home town? I can’t seem to get a job. Nothing is going right.”
“Do you think God sent you to help start the new church?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did God tell you that He has changed His mind and wants you to come back?”
“No.”
“Then you had better stay there and look for a job until you find one. If you go back you’ll
still have to find a job, and a house to live in, and you will have moving expenses, and you will
be deeper in debt. On top of that, you might find that God wants you back on the team.”
Doubt. Roland couldn’t get a job because after a few employment reverses and the car troubles
he began to doubt. He began thinking about going back home. When he did go job hunting he
did so only half-heartily—as if to prove to himself. “See, there really aren’t any jobs in this
town.” Yet thousands and thousands of other men in that town had jobs, and I suppose hundreds
of people there had car troubles everyday. But doubt was making Roland ineffective. How could
God bless him? Roland did not have any clear idea of what he wanted to be blessed WITH!
Most doubters share a common denominator: They allowed Satan to muddle the clarity that
God had given them about what they were to do with their lives. If doubt enters your mind, there
is only one cure: You must have faith, rooted deeply in the fact that God has made you for a
specific purpose and that you are moving unalterably toward that purpose. You must have a
faith picture of yourself completing that vision and you must have the perseverance to carry it
out. This is your security and it will keep you steady through all the trials, tribulations and
suffering that will surely come as you lead a godly life in Christ Jesus.
Consider Job. He lost his children, his wealth, and his livelihood in one day. Sore boils
covered his body. His wife condemned him. His friends criticized him. People of the meanest
circumstances mocked him. But he did not doubt God. He looked for the right way out of his
trials. His question in the midst of tribulations was not, “I wonder if there really is a God, and if
He loves me?” His was a bold confession, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” How can we
develop this same confidence?
First of all, security comes only from God. There is no security in this world or in the
things of this world. Second, Job understood God’s love and compassion, and he knew that if he
remained faithful to his Maker—even if he were killed—he would eventually come into God’s
glorious presence. Third, Job had become wealthy by applying God’s prosperity principles. He
gave to widows, orphans, strangers, treated his servants well and looked to use what he had for
the benefit of others. He was a giver, not a getter, secure in the knowledge that the God who had
given and taken away, was just as capable to give again. You could say that Job had a revelation
of what the Holy Spirit was later to reveal to the Apostle Paul in the eighth chapter of Romans.
Every verse of Romans 8 is steeped of inspirational power, but I want to focus on verses 28
through 39 as a perfectly fashioned gem among the jewels of faith pictures of security God has
blessed us with.
This passage starts with the affirmation that God predestined us Christians to be like Jesus.
We are men of destiny. God is programming everything that happens to us to work for the good--even our failures. Next we find that we are justified—that is, the punishment for our sins has
been pardoned because we are followers of Jesus. We are also glorified. The verb tenses here are
past or present perfect: things that happened or that are happening, not that will happen some
day. Then comes the question of verse 31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for
us, who can be against us?” Then comes the remarkable affirmation that God freely give us all
things, that He justifies and protects us against all who would accuse or condemn us. Jesus
Himself is at the right hand of His Father pleading our case. We know that when Christ prays for
us, what needs to be done is done.
Now comes a part basic to our security, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Paul
mentions these things because Christianity does not exempt us from problems, but it does
promise us ultimate victory. Starting in verse 37 Paul tells us, “Yet in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor
depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” How much more secure can you be? If nothing can separate you from
God, then hell and death have no hold over you and suffering and defeat can’t keep you down.
In Hebrews 2:14, we find that Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death,
that is, the devil, and that He freed us from slavery to the fear of death. When you start
unmasking doubts, you will find that all of them have at bottom the fear of death. To be different
from the rest is to risk rejection, in other words, social death. Fear makes scraping and groveling
after money very prevalent. People are afraid that without purchasing power they will be
economically dead; worse, if some illness comes on them and they don’t have the money to pay
for the treatment, they might be literally dead. Satan carefully associates all fears and doubts
with death, and moves you from fact, fact, to the conclusion that you’d better do all you can to
protect yourself from death.
The Bible presents a totally different story. When Jesus was born, Satan tried to kill him
through King Herod but managed only to murder dozens of innocent children. He tried again
through the mob that tried to cast Jesus off a cliff in his home town of Nazareth. Jesus didn’t die,
however, until God wanted Him to die, until He had fulfilled His destiny. Satan thought that he
had finally ended the Messiah’s career and mankind’s hope at Calvary, but we understand that all
things were working together for the good, according to God’s plan. Imagine Satan’s surprise
when the Lord arrived at the gates of hell and instead of being brought in and having the door
swung shut on Him, Jesus took from Satan the keys to hell and death and set free all the
righteous people from Adam to the repentant robber crucified at Christ’s side. As St. Paul
exclaims, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory (1 Corinthians 15:5455)?”
Satan would like you to think he still controls hell and death and he’d like to keep you in
doubt and fear all your life. Once you break this master link in the chain of human bondage to
sin, all of Satan’s other lies become transparent and patently unbelievable. For instance, you
have seen that Proverbs 28:27 says, “He who gives to the poor will not lack.” This is type of
picture that you can act on. You do not have to worry about what will happen if the boss fires
you, or the company collapses when you are 55 years old, or if economic chaos comes, or if you
find yourself in a foreign country where you can’t work. God says because you have that giving
heart, He will take care of you.
You have conquered economic death.
There are other areas where Satan will try to attack us. Family is one, and the principal fear
again is death. That is how the devil got to Job. He was worried that his children might sin
against God, so he continually offered sacrifices on their behalf. Finally, they were killed and we
find that one of Job’s comments about this disaster was “For the thing I greatly feared has come
upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. (Job 3:25).” He did not realize until later that
God had allowed those afflictions to hit him because Job needed to be purified of both fears and
pride. But the point is that had he not opened himself to worries about his children’s behavior,
Satan wouldn’t have bothered to assail him in that area.
Today, we don’t have to fear for our families. Job offered sacrifices because he was
worried about his children. We know that Jesus offered himself as a perfect sacrifice once and
for everyone. We are all free of death through him who has not given us a spirit of fear, but one
of power, love and discipline. God’s perfect love casts out all fear. Not the devil, not any person
or any created thing, can snatch our families or loved ones from us. They are in God’s hands. We
can be secure in that knowledge.
Once God replied to his questioning Job saw that he had been foolishly worried. Doubts
had needlessly clouded his thinking and robbed him of joy and peace. His attitude may not have
been right when he demanded an explanation from God, but the fact is he had not lost faith in his
Creator. Nor did he think the destruction of everything he owned meant utter ruin.
His wife told him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
He replied from a center of security and trust in God that was imbedded deep in his heart,
“You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and
shall we not accept adversity (Job 2:9-10)?”
Because he had such a deep commitment to God, the Lord cleansed and liberated him from
his fears. He was free to rebuild on a solid foundation of joyful security in God. If you are to be a
successful builder, you too have to be free of fears. Doubting stops construction. Go back in your
mind and look at the things you feared in the past, or that you still fear because you haven’t
completely let God control every area of your life. Aren’t those fears at their core a fear of
death? Hasn’t Jesus conquered death? That is why we have security. You don’t have to be afraid
to try anything that God shows you to do because Jesus lives and has given you security. You
will have overcome the hurdle of doubt in the same way Gideon did. You won’t have a mind
filled of excuses based on doubts. You won’t say, “I can’t do it because I am too old, or too
young, or too poor, or too uneducated, or inexperienced, or too anything.” You will say, as Paul
confessed to the Christians at Phillipi. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:13).”
ALL THINGS, the Bible says. This covers even things some people might call recklessly
dangerous. Several years ago a group of missionaries decided that they were going to bring the
Gospel to a head hunting tribe in the Amazon jungles of Ecuador. They carefully prepared for
their arrival by dropping presents to the Indians by plane over a long period of time. Finally
when the felt they had gained the natives’ confidence they went into the Indian territory and set
up a base camp along a river. A short time later these Auca Indians attacked and killed all the
missionaries. Did they fail? Not if you consider what their mission was—to bring the Gospel to
this dangerous tribe. They paved the way. The wife of one of the missionaries, Betty Elliot, and
the sister of another, Rachel Saint, decided they would take up where their men left off.
The reactions were obvious: “What? Two women and a child (Betty’s daughter, Valerie)
go into the jungle where their loved ones were killed. Impossible! Crazy! Sure death! Besides the
headhunters, there were savage animals, pestilences, diseases, and uncertainty about supplies and
medical help.
Humanly speaking their critics were right. But Betty and Rachel knew in their hearts that
their men had not died in vain and that they were going to be the second phase of God’s plan to
convert the Aucas. To enter a venture like that I believe they had an understanding of the
essence of the faith pictures such as the one in Psalm 91 that we studied in Section 1. I’d like
you to look at a few verses of that psalm in the light of what those two women had to confront in
modern times. Verse 3 says “Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from
the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.” Nothing
can get through God’s protection. That is TOTAL security. God placed the truth in these
women’s hearts that they were going to be successful in reaching and converting the Aucas. But
what about their husband and brother? Didn’t they have the same Psalms, and they died? They
did, but they were also disposed to offer their lives in sacrifice if it would further the Gospel.
They didn’t consider their own lives so important that they had to guard them. With St. Paul,
they knew that if God allowed them to die in their endeavor, it would just mean that the way had
been paved for a greater work, and that they themselves would be taken to heaven, for to be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That is security too!
Verse 5 says, “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,.” Those of us who live in the relatively controlled
environment of North America can still relate to terror, because there is so much crime in the
world---muggers, rapists, murderers, robbers. But think of the terrors of the jungle. There is no
policeman who is going to answer a call when wild beasts strike, or when a giant anaconda snake
capable of swallowing a whole cow slithers into the camp. Consider the strange and incredible
vermin and exotic diseases. Then again, we tend to spiritualize the “arrows,” as the doubts that
strike us, but Betty and Rachel faced real arrows in a life-or-death situation. To the eternal glory
of God, they did not put their security in anything worldly, but in the living God. I believe they
knew that Satan and all the devils in hell were not going to be able to touch them because the
living God had sent them. Sure, evil spirits, evil men, and a nature twisted by Satan could try to
scare them, but they never would have any power to harm them except by God’s leave, in which
case only greater good would result. In fact, when people are not afraid, as in this case, the evil
powers get afraid.
When the Aucas killed the missionaries, Satan’s forces probably thought something like,
“That takes care of that. Nobody’s going into that jungle to try and convert any Indians. They
will believe it is much too dangerous”. Satan tried to convince everyone who knew about the
incidence that the Christians didn’t have any God at all; or if they did, He was off on a hunting
trip, or sleeping. That is the demonic lie: scare you so you do something less than what God
wants. Or tempt you into sin, or blind your mind to the truth, or even destroy you. But God is
faithful. There is not a single thing you do, or that crosses your path but that God allows it and
walks by your side through the situation turning every event to your ultimate good and to His
glory. That is security. Betty and Rachel acted on it. They established contact with the Aucas and
eventually went to live among the very Indians who had killed their family members. You can be
sure their security was in God and the vision He had given them to see these Indians brought to
salvation. No human agency could guarantee them they would not be the next set of Indian
trophies. They went on to preach Jesus, and practically the whole tribe cast aside pagan ways and
accepted a new life in Christ. The wonderful part is that now the Aucas too are free of the terror
by night, of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, of the arrows that fly by day and of the
destruction that lays waste at noon! They too have real security in Jesus Christ instead of the
drudgery and fear that kept them chained to endless cycles of killings and reprisals.
During Gen. Efrain Rios Montt’s presidency in Guatemala, he invited me to his country to
advise him on the spiritual implications of some important decisions he had to make. I accepted,
even though there were guerrilla warfare going on in the country, and that the president’s
position politically was quite unstable. Somebody told me as I prepared to go, “Your life is
marked for death!”
“So what’s the big news!” I asked. The minute I gave my life to Jesus Christ, the devil
marked me for death. I am a traitor to his cause. He would kill me this instant if he could, but he
can’t. He can only do to God’s children what the Lord allows. IF God permits me to die in other
than the natural circumstances of old age—as by martyrdom in the case of the five
missionaries—then I will attain a better resurrection. As in the case of Jesus, such a death is not a
defeat, but a great and powerful victory. The devil NEVER wins against men and women whose
security is in the Lord.
King David’s security was so based in the Lord that he did not feel it necessary to kill Saul
when he twice had the opportunity. He realized he had to stay out of Saul’s way, but he knew
that since it was God who protected him he would not have to resort to killing to keep from
being killed. He could look back over a long life filled with many tribulations and vicissitudes
and say with all certainty, “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread (Psalm 37:25).”
Meditate on this verse, (and it is one of literally hundreds that tells of the security and rest
we have in God), and you’ll discover that as you believe it, it will produce a tremendous security
in your being. To the extent you don’t believe, you will be less secure and more dependent on
temporal things like your house, job, family, pension plan and savings, etc. The more carefully
you conform yourself to what the Word of God teaches, the more security, contentment and
peace take over your being and bring you to the point where you grasp you are living in a world
where God is ruling and guiding every event toward a glorious and blessed conclusion. With
that kind of confidence you’ll have the courage to launch out on new ventures as you feel the
Holy Spirit guides.
That brings us to some practical considerations about the way the secure person acts in
contrast to the doubting or insecure person (one very real result of doubting is precisely
insecurity). Years ago, while I was still a real estate broker, a man came to me looking for a job.
I told the man, “Yes, I think you could work with my realty company after some training.”
“What’s the pay?” he asked.
“We work on commission.”
“Well, I have to have a salary,” the prospective salesman replied.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “I don’t have a job for you. But I would like you to think about one
thing. The person who has to have a salary is always going to have to work for the man who
doesn’t have to have one.”
I might well have added, “You’ll never have job security either, because when
circumstances change, it’s not the boss who gets laid off or fired, it’s the employee.”
How very odd that when people place their security in anything other than what the Bible
teaches, they actually end up in a more insecure position than ever. The company’s not going to
provide any security. Mergers, changes in products, relocation, new technologies, cut out jobs
every day. The government is not going to do it. North American and western European
governments have been stable relative to the world situation, but that could change at any time as
they move further away from Christian principles. National pension programs could fail,
Governments might have to cut or eliminate heath care benefits. A war could erupt. Some
governments are continuously unstable. The family? The divorce rate is rising everywhere.
Money? Inflation constantly erodes currency values. Poor investments deplete capital.
The man of God does not ignore his job, his civic duty, his family, or his investments. But
he does not base his security on them either. His security is in the Word of God. He knows he
will never suffer want because he tithes and gives to the poor, not because he has a pension plan.
Plenty of pension plans have failed, but God says, “I will not fail you or forsake you. Don’t fear
or be dismayed.”
Let that be your meditation: God will not fail you. You can be secure in Him. Jesus warned
us that life does not consist in the abundance of things we possess. There is no security in things.
They rot, rust, or get stolen. Insecure people cheat themselves of joy and rest trying to prevent
theft and corruption. Christians secure in God know that their Heavenly Father knows what they
need even before they ask and that He is pleased to take care of them. He is a loving God whose
promises are now and forever. He is the God about whom the prophet Isaiah said, “You will
keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You (Isaiah 26:3).”
Make your steadfast purpose glorifying God by doing His will, and He will literally surround
you with a protective shield of love, guide you into decisions that will make your life a success,
and provide you with the peace that comes from knowing that your future—on this earth and in
eternity—is already provided with everything you need. This is security and it is yours now.
Chapter 12
Who Is that Man in the Mirror?
Do you remember Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous story, “Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde?”
The kindly Dr. Jeckyl discovers a potion that brings out the other, more vicious, side of his
personality—the debauched Mr. Hyde. Once loosened from the darkness of Jeckyl’s hidden
sinful nature, Mr. Hyde eventually takes over the entire personality and carries Jeckyl to
destruction.
Though Stevenson wasn’t writing from a Christian perspective, there is truth in his
observations. It is rather interesting that the Bible tells us that unless we come to Jesus’ feet as
repentant sinners, we will continue to be ruled by our sinful, fallen natures. When Dr. Jeckyl
looked in the mirror, he may have seen his own reflection, but beneath that veneer of culture and
civilization was the raw sinner that is every man since Adam. Behind Jeckyl’s reflection was the
shadow of death, for the wages of sin is death.
Thinking about the monster within is hardly the stuff to generate a sense of security, or the
material from which to build a healthy faith picture of a loving, compassionate, successful man.
Unfortunately, the person who doesn’t know Jesus can’t do much more than fight the beast. It’s
Jesus who removes the monster of sin that enslaves men to vice; then He gives them a spiritual
photo of who they really are. Romans, Chapter 8 is tremendously inspirational. It tells us who
we are to be as Christians. Verse 29 says that because God knew we were going to answer His
call to forsake sin and follow Him, “He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son.” That means every day when you look in your spiritual mirror, you should be a little more
like Jesus. You have a new spiritual identity—the one God prepared for you since before the
earth was. Without this identity, you will never be prosperous. You will be like a Dr. Jeckyl with
a Mr. Hyde lurking behind the mask. For that reason, Paul says in Romans 12:2, “And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Are you ready for that
transformation? Of course you are! There is nothing better in the universe than to be like Jesus!
Let’s take a look at how identities are formed, and then see who that unique person is that
God made you to be. Perhaps the most startling fact is that initially who we think we are does
not fully come from us. It comes from other people, who in turn have been influenced by the
diabolical world system in which we live. It is only later in life that we begin to form our own
picture of who we are, and often by that time it is too late (without God’s help) to dramatically
change ingrained conclusions.
In normal circumstances a baby comes into the world and normally forms a close bond first
with his mother, and later with his father and other members of the family. He receives a name
from his parents.
Mommy says, “You are Willy.”
Daddy comes home from work and says, “How is my little Willy today?”
After eight or nine months Willy dimly begins to realize he is Willy. By the time he is three
or four, someone who asks him his name will get a sure reply, “I’m Willy.”
I have yet to hear a little one say, “My folks call me Willy, but they don’t know what
they’re talking about. My real name is Fritz.” He may do something like that in later life, but it
won’t make too much difference because he already will have received his basic personality
influences from those around him by that time.
What happens from birth on is that little Willy takes on the values and directions of his
family and friends. Whether he accepts or rejects them in later life doesn’t matter. They have
influenced him already, and will continue to influence him even when he becomes a Christian.
That is where Paul’s admonition to us “be transformed” comes into play. Now if Willy has wise
Christian parents, they will understand the principles of this book, and they will tell Willy, “Son,
God created you with a destiny. He has something special he wants you to be. Let’s try to
discover your purpose in life.”
In such cases, when Willy reaches manhood there will be no Mr. Hyde in him. His
orientation will be toward God, toward His will, and toward successfully carrying out His divine
purpose in life. When he looks in the spiritual mirror he will see himself doing what every
Christian ALWAYS ought to be doing: becoming more Christ-like.
Now let’s take Willy’s cousin, Tessie. Tessie’s parents did not want any more children but
she came along anyway, upsetting all their plans for the future. Tessie learns her name, but she
also learns something else that will shape her life, “You’re a bother. Why don’t you go outside
and play? Who don’t you find something else to do? Do you always have to play right under my
feet?”
Her parents might feel remorse for their attitude and go through periods in which they tell
her, “You’re a good girl, You’re so sweet.”
But then the exasperation will come back, “Can’t you do anything right? I just don’t know
what’s the matter with you.”
By the time she is a young adult, she will be confused and insecure—maybe not on the
outside because she has learned to hide her feelings and cope with her sense of rejection, but on
the inside she will be afraid of the next reaction.
Finally, she gets married, but after the honeymoon her husband begins saying things to her
like “You didn’t fix the dinner the way I wanted, “ or “What do you do around here all day? This
house looks like a pigpen.”
His accusations sound like the same kind of rejection her parents unwittingly worked into
her identity when she was a child. However, she is older now and has learned to fight back, so
the next time her husband asks her when she is going to start doing some real work around the
house, Tessie retorts with “If you don’t like what I do, get yourself another slave. I’ll take the
kids and go.” If this kind of dialogue keeps on long enough, the marriage ends in divorce,
reinforcing what Tessie thought about herself all along: She is a born failure, and that is why
everyone rejects her.
Now that she is divorced, maybe she has to get a job to take care of the children. But what
happens? She has no self-confidence. She dwells with the fear that maybe another employee will
come along who can do the job better, or who is more pleasing to the boss, or who will work for
less pay. That insecurity robs her of all peace, and eventually she transmits that to her children
and another generation grows up afraid and insecure--doomed to disappointment.
That is the process in a nutshell. Thanks to God the situation is not hopeless. One day
Tessie visits her cousin Willy, who grew up with a correct spiritual identity based not on human
follies, but on God’s plan. Willy tells her about an identity grounded in God. She decides to
revamp her entire identity according to how God sees her. The steps Tessie takes will be
different than the ones you and I must take because God made each of us with unique
personalities. Nevertheless, the departure point will be the same. Hear this carefully: Even
though Tessie (or you or I) started to apply the right principles for a vigorous, godly, spiritual
identity late in life, and Willy grew up receiving an edifying input, in both cases... in all cases...
the person who God created them to be was already there ready to develop. In other words, we
are not trying to form any “positive self-image,” we are trying to be who God created us to be.
This is because our Maker only created one man and one woman.
Does that sound strange? Perhaps so, but I sincerely believe the Bible shows us that God
created every person in this world to be a success because in the very beginning He created just
one man and just one woman and He made them perfectly. He told Adam and Eve to increase
and multiply, He did not mean they should bring forth depraved children, or failures. The fact
that Cain slew Abel, and men have done so ever since is the result of man’s departing from
God’s plan, not any moving from perfection on God’s part. Satan has ruined man’s perception of
his true spiritual potential and caused him to ruin himself and his environment. It is not that some
men were made to succeed and others to fail, or that God wants to destroy certain people and
bless others. The devil deceives many into believing they are not cut out for success, or that they
are just a higher form of animal life in a purely material world, or that—if they indeed do believe
there is a God—that He could care less whether or not they achieve anything in life or not. Such
thinking surely leads to failure, but it is not because God planned it that way, it is because the
person with such ideas fails to grasp that God created him to succeed in life. King David
brought this sense of destiny to light in Psalm 139.
Verse 13 states, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s
womb.” There is no chance here. There is no mistake of the sort Tessie’s parents thought. Every
person who comes into this world under whatever set of circumstance is here because God
decided it would be that way. Period. In verse 16, we find, “Your eyes saw my substance, being
yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet
there were none of them.” How marvelous! Your days and mine are already laid out in such a
way that they march us toward success if we use them as God proposes, as He planned when we
were yet dust. The pattern God used to form you was a perfect pattern, and He has placed a
description of it in the Bible.
The lives of all the successful men and women in the Scriptures are there for our
instruction. We can study those elements that made Job prosperous, that made Abraham the
friend of God, that allowed Moses to become the key to free the Israelites from Egyptian
bondage, that moved Paul to forsake all for the sake of the Gospel. Because of the taint of sin in
their lives, none of them expressed perfectly this one man that God created. Only Jesus did that;
the others demonstrated godly qualities in human terms so we can correctly pattern our lives on
those qualities that made them Christ-like. Everything that diverges from that one pattern is sin.
By this I don’t mean we are all to have just one personality, or that there is only one
possible skin color, or nationality. That is absurd. I am referring to that ONE SET OF
INTERNAL REALITIES by which every person has been destined to express the heart of God
on this planet. Our PERSONAL personalities are all different, just as God the Father’s
personality is different from that of the Son, yet they are ONE. Jesus tells us that we are one in
Him. Our work in the world is different and it is uniquely expressed by our personalities, but or
basic unity remains constant in Christ because we have the same Spirit. We are all different, yet
we are all the same. This is somewhat of a mystery, but unless we are aware of it we will always
be foolishly comparing ourselves with others instead of only with the perfect pattern God wants
for us: Jesus.
This is a bit easier for a man to grasp than for a woman because more of the outstanding
Biblical glimpses of who is this one person are men. To balance that, my example is going to be
the woman of Proverbs 31. Her Scriptural portrait most closely resembles what that one woman
should look like on the earth. The virtuous woman of Proverbs is very much how Jesus would
manifest Himself in a feminine way. Other parts of the complete picture of the woman the Lord
created are found in the lives of such women as Ruth, Ester, Sarah, Mary the mother of Jesus,
etc.. Now let’s see what this basic internal reality is for the woman:
The basic statement in Proverbs 31:10-11 is, “Who can find a virtuous wife?” The answer
is, “Nobody.” God Himself gives us our mates. “For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of
her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.” This is the heart that God has placed in every woman.
Beginning with Eve, she was meant to be man’s ideal helper—to encourage, comfort, collaborate
with her man all the days of her life. What makes women less than that is sin. Yet, every woman
has the potential to be that excellent and virtuous wife for some man, unless she has been given a
special calling in God to devote herself to the work of the ministry as a single person. In verse
13, “She seeks wool and flax,
And willingly works with her hands.” This means the woman in God’s heart is creative, diligent,
a developer of resources. Today, she might be a top-notch homemaker, or a career woman, or run
a business from her house. The form is just a personal outworking of the inner reality. As the
chapter unfolds, we see her as a careful woman, an executive, bold enough to start businesses
and to expand prudently without neglecting her present duties. She pays attention to spiritual
matters while at the same time she girds herself with physical strength. She is no weakling who
sits around the house waiting for her husband to come home with the paycheck and take care of
every little detail in the house. Her attitude is, “I am going to stand beside my husband, and
together we are going to fulfill our destiny in God.”
Let me introduce another Proverb here. Proverbs 14:1 says, “The wise woman builds her
house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.” Again, what woman did God create? A
wise woman who builds her house. Sin created the woman who demolishes her marriage, just as
sin formed the man who troubles his own house and who consequently will inherit the wind.
In verse 25, “Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come.” Her
position is secure and she can be rightfully content with her station in life. The future holds no
threat of debilitating old age or economic ruin.
Verse 26 is a vignette of God’s heart beating in her breast, “She opens her mouth with
wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.” There is no other source of wisdom but God,
and Jesus is the very embodiment of kindness. This woman has trained herself to be a channel
for these perfect qualities of the Creator. She is not a gossiper or a busybody, nor an idler.
In the end, her family praises her for her Christ-like qualities, and her husband even says,
“Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.” Isn’t that our goal? To come before
the Lord, and hear him say, “My son, my daughter, you have excelled in what I called you to do.
Enter into my joy.” What woman would want to be anything less than this beautiful woman that
God designed her to be, regardless of what particular form it takes in the workaday world?
Contrast this with the first part of verse 30, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,” because
they are exteral and temporary and the virtuous woman will not base her life or her security on
such temporal qualities. Then the last part of the verse says, “But a woman who fears the LORD,
she shall be praised.” This underscores the “you excel them all” idea, and brings attention to the
fact that here is a woman who shaped her life after the image of Christ.
Getting back to Tessie, had she been presented with this kind of image of herself from the
start and had she taken it to heart, she would have spared herself much sorrow and failure. She
would simply have grown up to be the woman God called her to be. All the same, at age 25 or
95, the woman who gives herself to becoming that one woman God created will end her days
blessed of God and men.
The same sort of thinking, but different examples, hold true for the man. It is not so much
what we do, or whether we are men or woman, it is whether or not we are becoming what God
wants us to be—that is, developing the spiritual and moral character of Jesus. That, in turn,
depends on our cooperation with the Holy Spirit. In this lifetime we will always be distinct from
Jesus because He is infinite in life and power and in every good thing but we can be like Him in
terms of moral characteristics if we allow the Holy Spirit to fully change us. We will be able to
love as perfectly as Jesus does, though not as infinitely as He does. We will be able to do many
MORAL things perfectly in our human context, imaging what Jesus does in His infinite context.
He will forever remain the source of all. Above all He is to be the source of our spiritual identity.
Any attempt to have a good sense of “self-worth” or “positive self-identity” apart from Jesus is
futile. It is like trying to resolve the problem of a barrel of dirty water by tossing in a glass of
clean water. You end up with more dirty water. You can’t clean up a human identity. You have
to have a spiritual identity in Christ Jesus. And that is what He give us. He tells us, “There is no
way to save your old personality. It was formed on the basis of other people’s influences and
your own, “fact, fact, fact, conclusion” observations. My Father has only one son or daughter in
His heart, and that is a wonderful person created in His image and likeliness patterned after me,
Jesus.” Don’t try to make some changes in the old personality. That is being conformed to this
world, Mr. Hyde will still lurk beneath Dr. Jeckyl’s cosmetic changes. Dump out the old barrel
of water and let the Holy Spirit fill you with LIVING water, Let Him transform you. Not only
will your identity be unmistakably rooted and grounded in God, you will have the unshakable
security that what you do will lead you to total victory over everything that would oppose itself
to your prosperity. God designed it that way.
Chapter 13
Develop Your Creative Capacity--Now
Here is a quick quiz for you: The very first words in the Bible are, “In the beginning God
created...” A little later God says, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...”
Question: What is one of the godly qualities man possesses on the basis of these Scriptures?
That’s right—creative capacity. When God made monkeys and all other creatures, He did
not give them any creative capacity. All the smartest chimps in the world can do is what God
genetically engineered them to do. They live by instinct, doing exactly what their ancestors did
since the foundation of the earth. They will never do any more than that unless they learn a few
tricks (and learn does not mean invent) through observation. The same species of birds always
makes the same kinds of nest; the same species of spiders always spin the same kind of webs.
Man is not so. He is a separate creation of God, not created by fiat, but personally formed by
God’s hands from the dust of the earth and fused with the breath of life by his Creator. Like God,
he is very creative. The difference is that his capacity is limited. God works through eternity and
He creates in the strictest sense of the word. That is, He can make something out of nothing.
Man can only create during his lifetime, and only out of the materials God gives him. An
example of what I mean is found in man’s fascination with flying.
Greek legend tell us of Icarus. He saw birds flying and decided he would like to do it too.
Using the available technology, he made wings of bird feathers waxed together and managed to
fly. He supposedly flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, his wings fell apart, and he
plunged to his death. The story is sort of a pagan version of the Tower of Babel—man trying to
ascend to the heavens on his own power. On the other hand, perhaps the myth was founded on a
true incident in which some primitive aviator tried to imitate birds. Whatever the case, the Icarus
idea was taken up by others. Over the centuries men have devised gliders, kites, balloons,
whatever might possibly work. Nobody arrived at sustained flight over the millennia, but they
passed the vision along beyond their lifetimes and eventually Wilbur and Orville Wright came on
the scene at a time when the gasoline engine had recently been invented. A great deal of work
had already been done in relationship to manned flight.
The Wrights took what was available, added the genius of the internal combustion engine,
and man was airborne. It was not long before men who had dreamed of going to the moon
advanced the two brothers’ primitive technology and set off for outer space. I have no doubt that
if man finds a reason for landing on the sun, he will figure that out too. Meanwhile, because of
technology advances, Icarus’ idea is nearly a reality. There are hang gliders and ultra-light flying
machines that can be gotten airborne by pedaling a bicycle-like apparatus. Personal solar cellpowered airplanes will soon be cruising above our heads. That is man’s creative capacity at
work!
How this capacity works and what it can do is of paramount importance to us as Christians,
for unless we apply our creative intelligence to the faith pictures God has placed in our hearts,
we won’t be able to achieve anything vital with our lives. God expects us to be creative; that is
why He does not just give us everything material we need in finished form. He wants us to
experience the same joy He had in making and doing. Adam was not just dropped down in a
non-work paradise. He had some specific orders that required a first-order creative capacity:
subdue the earth, rule over the creatures in it, and tend the garden of Eden. Our Heavenly Father
tells us in the Book of Ephesians that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works ”that God
prepared for us beforehand.” This harkens back to “the days that were ordained for me” of Psalm
139.
The Lord gives us something 20, 50, even 90 percent complete. The rest is up to us. Take a
tree. No tree is a house until a man applies his creativity to that wood and turns it into lumber,
and the lumber into a dwelling. Additionally, God has given us the capacity to restructure
elements and to make substances that did not previously exist on the earth. Now man is even
changing the genetic structure of living things. The frightening aspect is that left to himself, man
today is just like man before the Flood. The report of Genesis 6:5 is, ”… every intent of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” After the flood, man went right back to evil with
the construction of the Tower of Babel. The main thing that keeps him from devising even more
wicked inventions is his lack of unity confounded by the many thousands of languages and
dialects that are spoken across the earth today.
I mention this negative aspect only to show you that creativity is a double-edged sword.
What primarily interests us in the positive side of discovering how to put your creative abilities
to work for the glory of God. This is always the path of prosperity. Just keep in mind that
creativity is built into everyone. It is not that some of us have it and others do not. What the
world calls our “intelligence quotient” is not the major factor. What we do with the gifts God has
given us is the determining element. Thomas Edison, indisputably one of the men whose ideas
and inventions have most left their mark on our modern lifestyle, wisely observed that, “Genius
is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” I already mentioned that Edison
tried hundreds of different ways to make a light bulb before he finally came up with the right
combination. He wasn’t the only one to produce light from electricity, but he certainly was the
first to bring a workable commercial answer to the marketplace. His genius was that he started
with the facts, then organized and reorganized them until he found the right answer. That is the
“perspiration”—a fantastic ability to concentrate on a single idea or problem for long periods of
time.
Charles Goodyear is another man the world considers a genius. His inventions
revolutionized the transport industry. He began experimenting with latex, the product of the
rubber tree, which in 19th century was not much more than a chemical curiosity. He saw that it
had qualities that could make it very useful if it could be stabilized. It was flexible, durable and
waterproof. The trouble was it “melted” when exposed to heat, was sticky and decomposed
under certain common circumstances. Goodyear tried compound after compound, trying to find
something that would make rubber a more stable substance.
One day he tried treating it in fire and found that something changed in the rubber’s
internal structure. It had transformed into a tough, resilient substance. Later he tried melting it,
but it would not melt. It had stabilized. Goodyear had discovered the vulcanization process.
Some people thought that after years of failure that he had experienced a “lucky break.” Of
course, it was no chance happening. Goodyear had worked so long and so hard on a solution to
rubber’s instability in various products that when he finally saw the vulcanization, he knew he
had found the answer.
Edison’s and Goodyear’s respective experiences with the light bulb and rubber remind me
of the comical, but true observation, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Another time Edison was visiting with some friends when suddenly he said, “Hold it! Bring
me a piece of paper! Quick!”
A friend brought him the paper and very rapidly he drew the design for the world’s first
phonograph. Inspiration? Yes, but not out of the blue. His stroke of genius came because he had
been thinking on just this sort of problem—how to record the human voice—for a long time, and
finally all the elements came together in his head. Much creative success is based on the number
of hours you are willing to give to intense concentration on a given problem. Most people hardly
pay attention to what is going on around them, let alone concentrate on aspects of their lives.
That’s one reason why television programs and motion pictures jump from scene to scene. The
audience would get bored otherwise. Meditation is an excellent introductory step to harnessing
creative energy. You first let God speak to you, then a faith picture comes into your heart of
what you are to be or do. Last, you concentrate on the outworking—the solution—of what God
tells you. It may even be that God will bless you in a supernatural way. Elias Howe had been
working on the idea of a sewing machine for several years when one night while he was asleep
he received a dream for its construction. That is beyond inspiration. It is revelation. George
Washington Carver says that many of the wonderful uses he found for the peanut came because
God revealed them to him. I find it noteworthy that Dr. Carver’s motive in researching the
peanut was to find a way to help the black people of the South with an agricultural source of
income, and with food products that would cheaply supply their nutritional needs. God honored
that desire with revelations that have helped mankind.
At this point, you may be thinking to yourself, “Creativity is super, but I am just not a very
imaginative type of person.”
I say, “You really are imaginative. You just haven’t applied yourself to make your
imagination work for you.” I mentioned the short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”
Walter was a daydreamer. So were Christopher Columbus, King David, Beethoven, and the
Apostle Paul. What made these latter four world changers was that they put their dreams to the
test. This same quality is in you if you can only see and grasp it. Let me prove it to you:
To imagine is to see something that is not yet visible or manifest in the world, or to see that
which does not happen to be there at the moment. You are able to cast that thing on the screen of
the mind and even feel certain emotions connected with it. For example, when you relive a
childhood experience you are simply imagining an incident that happened years ago. Maybe it is
a trip you took to some lake with your parents. You can see the scene in your mind’s eye: The
trees, the refreshing water, the picnic. The horse alongside the road. You can sense the happiness
you felt then. That is the imaginative faculty at work. See, you have done it! Now apply it to
some problem that needs to be resolved. Your imagination is your creative capacity. Do what
every genius does: Channel your creative energy to solve a problem by gathering all the
information possible on the subject, both to stimulate your imagination and to provide yourself
with a broader basis for resolving the question. Then keep at it until you have found the solution.
The key is recognizing that all of us have God-given energy that we can channel where we
want. Some probably doubt they have it, so they don’t use it. Others, like those whose
imaginations are continually evil, dissipate their creative powers in sexual excesses, in moneymaking schemes, in criminal activities, and in other vices. As one of God’s sons, you must
recognize that God puts certain desires into your heart—they are like impulses or partially
formed thoughts—and that you are to develop them. They are actually the seeds of those things
God wants you to do and be. As you apply your creative capacity to meditate on them they take
form with the help of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you discover, “Hey, I have had that thought cross
my mind lots of times since I was a little kid. Now I am going to develop it into a godly part of
my character.”
That’s right. God planted it there as He wove you in your mother’s womb. Maybe you see
yourself preaching the Gospel or ministering as a pastor. Maybe you see yourself caring for other
people as a doctor or nurse or rest home worker. Perhaps you see yourself as a successful
business man who contributes greatly to the financial support of Christian ministry. Whatever the
dream, pray about it, talk to trusted Christian friends and leaders about it in order to determine if
it really is God’s heart revealed to you. Apply your creative capacity to finding the ways to live
it. Above all, bring it into the world, and bless mankind with your creativity. You have the
power, for you were made in the image of God. You are a creator guided by the Creator.
Chapter 14
“Open Your Eyes to the Right Perspective”
A lady came up to me one Sunday morning after I had preached a sermon and said, “Mr.
Durkin, I enjoyed your message. I have been a Christian for 40 years, but I still found what you
said new and refreshing.”
“Thank you,” I said. Later I got to know this lady and found out something about her
perspective. She had not been a Christian for 40 years, she had been a year-old Christian 40
times! I even know some people who instead of growing up over the years actually experience a
deterioration in their spiritual lives, but all the time they point out how many years they have
been Christians. They’re like the believers in the book of Hebrews. Whey they ought to have
been teachers, guiding young converts into the truth of God’s Word, they were still in need of
rudimentary teaching. The cause of this phenomenon is lack of proper perspective. Unless your
perception is right, all the truth in the Bible will be closed to you even as you read the words on
the page.
You recall that we looked at the Bible as the only source of true conclusions about God’s
will for mankind. The Biblical perspective is the right perspective. This is a little harder to
grasp than you might think. For that reason I am now going to bring into clear focus what it
means to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is the foundation for the kind of
viewpoint that will allow you to observe, put into practice and grow into the principles and life of
Jesus.
First, perspective entails both how we see things and from what angle we see them. In the
final analysis there are essentially only two perspectives. One is God’s; the other is Satan’s. You
may object, “I have my own way of seeing things.”
Oh no you don’t! You have been shaped by this world’s system, and it is part of Satan’s
domain. But suppose you did have your own perspective. What good would it do you? God’s
way is the only correct way of looking at life. He is the one who gives us the spirit of a sound
mind, of sound judgment. That means that anyone who does not have God’s spirit of sound
judgment is insane. That’s right. Harsh as it may first sound, anyone who thinks he knows how
to run his life is insane. Satan’s insane. He thought he could be like God. He still thinks he can
win his on-going battle—or at least make a deal--with the Lord. Insanity! When the devil has
served God’s purpose he will be cast forever into the lake of fire. That is also the lot of everyone
who refuses to make God’s perspective his own.
But it takes faith to see from God’s point of view. All Christians have made the initial step
toward God’s perspective. They believe that all those who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and
repent—turn away from—their sins are reborn as sons of God and inherit eternal life. Their sins
are forgiven, even if they have been the grossest sinners for the last 30 years with a horrible
weight of guilt crushing them into the grave. As a question of perception, what changed in their
lives when they accepted Jesus? If they were right handed when they gave their lives to Jesus,
they are still right handed. If they thought two and two makes five, they still think that way. If
they look in the mirror, they appear the same as always. Fact-wise, you could say nothing
changed. The truth is they are totally new persons.—they are everything the Bible says they are.
They have accepted God’s perspective about life. How they follow through on that will
determine whether they have 40 years of living the same basic Christian experiences over and
over, or they go from glory to glory, and become more and more like Jesus.
In other words, it is one thing to get to the right point of view, it is something else to get
everything in focus so you can clearly see what you are to do. Take a simple scripture like
Proverbs 27:5 and see how it pertains to this: “Open rebuke is better than love carefully
concealed..” Let’s take the case of Alvin. He has an extraordinary amount of love in his heart for
Laura. He says to himself, “Oh the love I have for Laura. I would do anything she asked of me.”
However, he keeps his love concealed.. no endearing words, no romance, no show of emotion.
Laura doesn’t see anything. If she did it would no longer be concealed love. No, this is invisible
love. The Bible says rebuke—even though it hurts and can strain a relationship—is better than
this secret love for the simple reason that with the rebuke the other person clearly perceives the
attitude of the rebuker. On the other hand, with Alvin’s concealed love for Laura, the only thing
she can conclude is that Alvin has absolutely no interest in her.
If Alvin were to overhear her say something to a friend like, “Alvin doesn’t even know I
exist,” he might protest to himself, “If you only knew my heart.”
That’s the point. Laura does not know and even though she is greatly loved, it does her no
good. Nor does it do Alvin any good. So as Christians we have a double task. First, we have to
take on God’s perspective of life. Second, we have to communicate that perspective to others,
and we have to understand how others perceive us. If Alvin had had God’s perspective, he would
have declared his love to Laura. She, in turn, would have then known Alvin’s perspective and
could have revealed her own to him—either to rebuke him or love him—and that would have
resolved the situation. Alvin would no longer be moping about dreaming of unrequited love.
As another example, let’s see how right perspective pertains to prosperity. The third
chapter of Proverbs begins, “My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my
commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.” Take on the Lord’s
perspective and you will find yourself emotionally stable and in good bodily health. The
scripture continues, “Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write
them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.”
This means, act out the commandments. As you do, others will perceive you as a warm,
concerned, loving person. They will want to be around you, to receive your counsel, your
friendship.
Now you see how important perspective is. It opens the door to walking in God’s will on
one hand, and disposes men to trust and respect you on the other. These are two of the prime
elements of prosperity. If you were in business and you had a godly perspective, you would be
sure to do what Proverbs 3:9 directs, “Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the
firstfruits of all your increase.” You’d also give to the poor, offer just wages to your employees,
and fair prices to your customers. People would perceive you as honest and reliable, and bring
their business to you. That right perspective is a tool to bless you divinely and materially.
Let’s backtrack to verses 5 through 8, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not
on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil...”
Those few words, “your own understanding” sum up the world’s viewpoint which is a
proud, “Don’t tell me. I know what I am doing, buddy” attitude. On the other hand, “Trust in the
Lord,” means even if you don’t understand why God has placed a certain perspective in the
Bible, do it anyway. It’s right. The result of following these verses is, “It will be health to your
flesh, and strength to your bones.” Again, God holds out good health and a sound, strong body to
the man who sees the world from His vantage point.
There is just one word of caution I have to interject. As you search the Scriptures for these
godly perspectives, you will find that God sees you in certain ways, and that He wants you to see
yourself in the same fashion. Each verse is intended to work certain qualities into your life—
ways of seeing, feeling, responding. What you are to do is keep all these descriptions in balance.
For instance, we are all sheep in God’s flock. Domestic sheep by nature are very dependent on
their shepherds. They need someone to lead them to food and water, to protect them from wild
beasts, to guide them to the sheepfold at night. Seeing ourselves as sheep is a right perspective if
we see the church as the sheepfold and the elders in their pastoral function as the ones who
provides food, safety and comfort. Yet, carried too far, this perspective is damaging. The person
who only sees himself from the perspective of the sheep will be unduly afraid when the devil,
like a roaring lion, comes looking for someone to devour. He will say, “The devil is after me.
The pressures are so great. I hope I don’t fall into sin. I don’t know what to do.”
When you are beset by tribulations and tempted to sin it is not time to think of yourself as
helpless sheep. It is time to switch over to the warrior perspective of knowing you are a
conqueror in Christ Jesus. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil,” says Ephesians 6:11. You have to be a person with a fighting spirit who
engages the enemy in combat and intends to win. Then the devil will flee from you—a sheep!
Did your circumstances change? Not at all! Your perspective changed to suit the situation (your
perspective must come from the Word of God if you are to have success).
This is the right perspective at the right time. It is all right for a new Christian to be
concerned about his job, his home life, the temptations that beset him, his future, etc. He has just
come into the faith and he needs the nurturing of the Gospel. St. Paul says that new Christians
need the sincere milk of the Word so they can grow and be strong—so they can be partakers of
the strong meat of Christian work and revelation. But what if a Christian continuously likes to
see himself from the perspective of being one of God’s little children? That is as absurd as a
teenager dragging around a bottle and a blanket. St. Paul says, “When I was a child, I spoke as a
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish
things (1 Cor 13:11).” There is nothing wrong with a child’s perspective if you are three years
old. It is appropriate. By age 18 it ceases to be correct. In short, make sure that first, your
perspective comes from God; second, it’s appropriate to the situation. If you do these two things
your response will always be within the center of God’s will.
Lastly, there is a simple rule of thumb to follow to help you keep yourself on an even keel
through all the storms on the sea of life. Phillippians 4:8 informs us, “ Finally, brethren, whatever
things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there
is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” If you give it even a moment’s thought,
you will realize that Jesus does not clutter up HIS MIND with negative thoughts, strife,
jealousies, fears, hatreds, doubts, and so on. All negative thinking wears you down, turns you
from the truth, and makes you distrustful of God and man. It is horrifyingly destructive, so
eliminate it from your life.
Be positive; let your mind dwell on good things. Did someone cheat you? Don’t think
about vengeance. Forgive as Christ forgave you. That’s God’s perspective. Did someone
ridicule you? Bless those who curse you instead of looking to belittle them in return. The
Philippians 4:8 perspective sums up many of the commandments we are to observe. It positively
promotes our emotional and physical well-being and frees our spirits to dwell on the things of
God instead of on earthly, sensual, or downright devilish matters. The result is in verse 9, “The
things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace
will be with you.”
Chapter 15
“I’d be Perfectly Content If I Only Had....”
Did you know there is a plot to make you discontent?
That’s right. Books, television, advertising, billboards and placards, newspapers, movies,
internet, even the people around you, are all trying to create artificial desires in your mind and
emotions. These desires will make you discontent because you DON’T have what you are being
told is good for you: the new car, the house in the suburbs, the winter vacation in Rio, the Swiss
watch with the solid gold case, the Italian silk suit, and the twin 100-horsepower outboard
motors for your ski boat. None of these items in themselves is wrong to own, but neither will
having them truly give you contentment, or not having them bring you discontentment.
The root of discontent is greed—the striving with wrong motives to have what you don’t
have. The fruit of such grasping is an irrational discontentment that will spur you to make
money—to love money, really—for what it will produce. Hand-in-hand with this goes the
desires for status and power. Does the Swiss watch with solid gold case tell time better than one
from Japan with a well-made mechanism in a stainless steel case? No, the desire for the more
expensive item is purely an irrational desire for status. Once you yield to the pictures the media
paints for you (most advertising is designed to build a false faith picture in you by appealing to
sinful desires of greed, status, and power), you are on an endless spiral of acquisition. You will
always have to have the new, the better, the more expensive.
Is there any way out of this dilemma? There is. It requires laying hands on God’s
perspective about the difference between what we need and what we want.
I call it “The Contentment Principle.” Once it operates in your life, you will be insulted
from the pressures to go into debt, to continuously acquire what you really don’t need, to always
want something more than what you have. You will clearly understand that you brought nothing
into this world, and that you can’t take anything out. You will be anxious no longer for what
will happen tomorrow. You will know in your heart that God will meet your every need. St. Paul
sums up the contentment position thus, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in
whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and
to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:11-13).” Paul’s
secret was the knowledge that life does not consist in the abundance of the things we possess, but
in a profound, trusting relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He had decided to place his
contentment level where Jesus told His disciples to put theirs in Luke 12:29-31, “And do not
seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these
things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But
seek the kingdom of God, and all these things[c] shall be added to you.”
There is no contentment in the world; only restlessness and striving, worry and anxiety, the
inordinate desire to get and to have more. The people of this world don’t know what they need;
they know what they WANT, what the THINK THEY NEED. The man of God says, “Father, I
know every good thing comes from You, so I am directing my life to do Your will. I know you
will take care of me and I will be content with what you give me.”
Unfortunately, as Paul warns us, there are some who think godliness is a means of
monetary gain. They think that by applying the principles of this book, for example, that they
will become rich and be able to do all the things they want. The fact is that if they carefully apply
godly principles to financial matters, they most likely will become wealthy, but they won’t be
content, nor will they be prosperous. All they will have done is pervert the truth and heap
sorrows upon themselves. For that reason Paul says (echoing Jesus), “And having food and
clothing, with these we shall be content (I Tim 6;8).”
That does not mean that a man should not have more than basic foodstuffs and clothing. It
means that he will see that money is not the source of wealth, but that godliness, when
accompanied by contentment, is the true fountain of great gain. He will recognize that anything
that comes to him beyond the basic necessities of life is merely an additional blessing from God
for which he is to be deeply thankful, and in which he can see a testimony of the Lord’s
graciousness, loving kindness and mercy.
This is not a normal attitude, even among Christians. There is a movement in the church
today that claims that because we are sons and daughters of the King—the Creator and Owner of
the universe—we deserve the best...and lots of it! This supposedly will show the world that God
is real, and that He loves His children and gives them abundantly of this world’s goods. The few
scriptures we have just treated hardly affirm this point of view. The “King’s kids” doctrine is
nothing more than a perverted reaction to the opposite extreme that all Christians should be poor.
Paul said, “I have learned to be content.....”
Remember, the world system trains us NOT TO BE CONTENT at any level. The
advertising media bombard us, trying to stimulate our emotions and our minds to buy and to buy
or we won’t really be happy. I remember going into a restaurant one day and seeing a sign with
a picture of a beautiful dessert. The sign said, “You deserve dessert.” Compared to some of the
high pressure pictures in mass media, a sign telling me I deserve dessert is innocuous, or is it?
Does anyone want to try to deny me what I deserve? I had my meal, and now I deserve dessert.
The appeal is to the ego without any regard to whether or not I need dessert, or have the money
for dessert, or do, in fact, deserve one.
Can you imagine Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, their bodies bashed from the beatings
they had just received and their feet in the stocks, telling the jailer, “Listen you, we are the
King’s kids, and we deserve dessert.” These men were no complainers. Their contentment level
was in doing the will of God, and if it landed them in jail, they were not going to think negative
thoughts that would just make them feel mentally worse. They began to think lovely, honorable,
pure thoughts, and soon were praying and singing. At that moment an earthquake freed them,
and they went on to preach salvation to the jailer, and were sent on their way by the city fathers
the next day. Contentment—not in things—but in Jesus. Paul had to learn to be content in such
situations. He came from a wealthy family and was extremely well educated. Before knowing
Jesus I suppose his contentment level included having servants, money, intellectual friends,
speaking several languages and the status of being a Roman citizen. He LEARNED to be content
in whatever state he found himself. Unless you do the same, you will be at the mercy of the
whims of fashion, the pressures of those around you and the imaginations of advertising agencies
and their clients.
My wife, Dacie, has built that contentment principle into her life. One summer in the early
1970’s we went to Alaska to help establish a church in a rural area. Since the congregation had
very little money, the only lodging they could offer us was a 10x10 foot shack that was so rustic
it didn’t have windows. That was all right because you could see outside through the cracks
between the boards. We set up a bed and brought in a couple of pieces of furniture and then I
went off to take care of some business with the church. When I returned my wife had made some
curtains and tacked them to the walls as a decoration and to help block the drafts. I don’t know
where she found the material but she did. She had also made a bookcase and had set out the
books I had brought. She turned that one-room shack into a home. While I was out she wasn’t
lamenting, “Why didn’t they at least put us up in a decent hotel in Anchorage,” or, “What a
stupid idea to leave my nice home in California for this hovel in the middle of nowhere.” As a
summer turned to fall our living arrangements became a bit more critical. Dacie just bundled up
the arctic cold and did what she had to do because she had learned to be content.
This ability to go without has given her the freedom also to not be attached to what she has.
Back at home, surrounded by her belongings, she was able to say, “Thank you, Lord, for these
wonderful blessings.” But they were suddenly to disappear, she would have quickly adjusted to
her new circumstances, not rail against God because He did her wrong.
When that contentment attitude is in your heart, you will find that it will actually help you
to go on to great prosperity on every level. That is because those who are content in God know
that what they have isn’t theirs at all. They are stewards—administrators—of God’s goods. In the
parable of the talents the master gave one servant five talents, which was a considerable amount
of money, and told him to invest it wisely. The servant gained five more, and his delighted
master put him in charge of many things more, invited him to join in the master’s joy and gave
him the talent of the unfaithful servant who had done nothing with his money. In the same way,
as we prove we are good stewards of what God has given us—as we learn to be content with
what we have and to resist the lure to satisfy egotistic desires—God will give us more, not to
squander on senseless pleasures, but to invest in the Kingdom of God.
But what about the person who by any normal standards hasn’t even come near what we
would call an acceptable contentment level? Some like Ralph Overhauser? He is a new
Christian who because of his former habits is over his head in debt. He has family problems. He
is on unemployment. Now he has just heard that he is supposed to be content with the state he is
in. “Mr. Durkin,” he says, “I don’t think I have reached my level of contentment yet. What shall
I do?”
First of all, I don’t think Paul felt that he was at the proper level of contentment in the
Philippian jail, or when and irate crowd stoned him and left him for dead outside the city of
Lystra. He had to learn to be content in such situations. At the same time he had to be sure to
pray for better circumstances. So the first advice to Ralph is “Go home and thank the Lord for
what you do have. Thank him for the food on the table, for the house you are living in, for the
clothes you are wearing, for your wife and children. Then ask God to make you content with
what you have, and to show you how to change your situation.”
If Ralph is sincerely able to recognize that anxiety, greed and doubt will only cause him
more trouble... if he is able to believe that God will fill his needs... if he is committed to model
his life on the Bible’s teachings…then God will lead him, step by step, from poverty to
prosperity. Once he is free from debt, he will have to guard himself against the old habits. Many
people fail at this point, God helps them back to health, or to emotional stability or to a secure
financial base, and shortly they are back to doing exactly the things that caused them problems
originally. Or they get a little smarter, so they control their bad habits, but not for the benefit of
God’s kingdom.
Suppose Ralph says, “Thank God I am out of debt. I am not going to do that again. I have
learned to live within my budget, to set aside money for investment. I even tithe to the church
and give to the missions fund.” Because he is now a more responsible and diligent worker he
receives a promotion. His savings are accumulating and his investments are turning out well
because he has taken a prudent economic posture. So he says to his wife, “This old Chevy isn’t
good enough any more. Let’s get a nice Buick, and a little car for you—maybe one of those new
compacts. We’ve got the money.” Then he decides their two bedroom house isn’t adequate.
They buy a four-bedroom with two-and-a-half baths. Then camping out for vacations is too
pedestrian, so they buy a summer retreat in the mountains. Then...
To keep from going on and on in consumerism, Ralph needs that contentment principle to
not only rule his poverty, but also his affluence. The Book of Ecclesiates says, “The eye is not
satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.” Unless Ralph decides that he must curtail
his continual upgrading, he will soon discover that he never has quite enough for all the things he
needs. He has to work even harder. This leads directly to frustration and discontent. That is
why I recommend that you make every decision only in the light of God’s purpose for your life.
Ask yourself this question, “Is this purchase—is this thing that I want to do—related to what
God wants me to do with my life? Will this benefit the Kingdom of God and the preaching of
the Gospel, or am I doing this to satisfy selfish desires?” There is nothing wrong with going
from an ultralight airplane to a single-engine, or from a gasoline engine Cessna to a Lear jet if
God shows you that it is useful for your work in His kingdom. Robert LeTourneau, the founder
of one of the world’s great heavy equipment companies, started out tithing 10 percent of his
income to the church. As his fortune grew, he did not proportionally increase his living, he
increased his giving, and he ended up giving 90 percent of his income to the work of the
ministry, and that still gave him enough left over to live royally. God blessed him greatly
because he was a good steward.
Speaking again of stewardship, we find that while one pitfall to increasing financial success
is forgetting about that basic contentment principle, another danger is not rightly discerning the
true nature of contentment. There are some Christians who are happy to just get by. They have
enough to eat, the rent is paid, there is gas in the car, they have a couple changes of clothes, they
even tithe to the church and give a few dollars now and then to charity. They say, “we’ve got
enough to get by.”
That is the trouble, God did not call them to get by. He called them to abundance. Getting
by is a self-centered attitude that has no place in the kingdom of God. It is one thing to live with
a low budget, a humble dwelling, simple but adequate food, old but serviceable furniture, good
but inexpensive clothes. It is something else to not do all you can for the poor, the widows, the
fatherless, the needs of Christian evangelism and missions. Furthermore, the Word of God tells
us to lay up a portion for our children’s children. Anyone who is content to just get by is not
fulfilling these obligations. A man must be content in whatever state he finds himself, but he
also has to pay attention to his obligations. These two are not mutually exclusive. I can say, “God
wants me to prosper. But I am content with these few things that I have. Instead of buying more
goods or upgrading what I have I am going to use whatever wealth the Lord gives me to provide
for my family, for the poor and the needy and for the work of the ministry.”
One attitude is laziness and selfishness; the other is right use of abilities and good
stewardship. The steward who buried his talent did not receive any blessing from his master. He
was punished. I think he was also very discontent too, because he was worried about what his
master was going to say to him. Contentment comes from forsaking our own perspectives, and
taking on God’s point of view that we are on this earth to bless others, and that we are really the
owners of nothing. Thus, anything we receive is a blessing and we should be content with it. If
we have more than we need to take the care of our basic needs, praise God! That means we have
more to give to others in the name of the Lord who provides all we need.
Chapter 16
“The Secret Revealed: Your Purpose in Life”
Sooner or later we all come face to face with man’s most difficult questions: What am I
doing here? What is life all about?
Over the centuries famous thinkers from Socrates to Sartre, from Confucius to Chairman
Mao, have attempted answers to these questions, and generally have contradicted one another.
Let’s face it: Finite minds can’t comprehend infinite questions. King David, who was a great
warrior, prophet, thinker, and an excellent musician and songwriter, observed, “LORD, my heart
is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things
too profound for me.” In everyday terms, David didn’t worry himself thinking about concepts
beyond the range of human capacity. He knew human reasoning could not answer questions
about who we are and what we are here for. But if we can’t figure out the answers, how will we
know what to do with our lives? Before I offer you my answer, let me tell you about an
extraordinary lady....
Her name was Lillian Thrasher and when I was a young man she was almost as well known
worldwide as Mother Theresa of Calcutta is today. Lillian Thrasher was called the Mother of the
Nile. She started Christian orphanages in Egypt that became home over a period of years to
thousands of homeless children and orphans.
When she was a very young woman she went to the mission board of her church and asked
for authorization to go to Egypt to work with needy children. The board, seeing her as young,
single and basically unqualified for missionary work declined her application. She went home
and prayed about the situation, and felt that God really was telling her to go to Egypt. She
thought, “No missionary group wants to send me, but I know God wants me to go. I have a few
possessions. I am going to sell everything I have and go to Africa.”
Lillian Thrasher did it. Her only backing was her faith in God and the money she raised
selling her goods. Her only goal was to exalt Jesus Christ and she was prepared to carry out the
will of God the best way she understood it. She spent several very difficult years in Egypt
establishing her credibility among the people, living in abject circumstances, and eating the
poorest quality of food. She passed through this long period of testing with her desire to continue
on in Egypt unshaken. Then she had a breakthrough into the realm of faith. She declared, “God
is going to meet our needs: God is going to build a great orphanage in this country.”
From that time on, the funds and help began coming in, and God prospered Lillian and the
orphans. Thousands of homeless children passed through her care. They were well-clothed,
well-housed, and well-taught. Many of them came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and
some went on to be ministers of the Gospel.
Later in life she went back to the United States and spoke at a conference I attended. She
said something that made a deep impression on me, and actually helped crystallize my thoughts
about life and about why I existed. In essence, she said, “If you are merely born, and you grow
up, marry, have children, grow old, and die, how are you better than an animal? That is all
animals do, live, procreate and die. We are humans, not animals. We are meant to change our
generation, and to change our communities, and to change our world for good.”
In you analyze her motivation you will find she did not have any worldly philosophical
answer for why she did what she did. She left family and friends, sold her belongings and went
to a strange country because she understood spiritually what all life is about, and what her role
was. She had divine understanding—not human reasoning—to give her assurance that her
answers were correct, and that because they were, that she would succeed. What were those
answers? First that every person’s life has the single purpose to glorify God. We are all on the
earth for exactly that reason. We saw in Psalm 139 that God purposefully made us. We are not a
chance creation. Second, in Ephesians 2:10 we see that He had already prepared the good works
that we are to walk in. That means that not only are we made purposefully, we are made with a
PURPOSE. No amount of human thinking will bring you to these conclusions: they come as a
revelation from God.
I do not want you to think that glorifying God is some theological abstraction. It has to be a
concrete reality in your life. You are here to glorify God, and your life will have no ultimate
meaning apart from that one purpose. Doing all things I have explained so far in this book, plus
the things that we still have to discuss, will help you to understand God’s purpose, and to
develop a solid plan (a vision) to carry it out. Doing God’s will or purpose is the hinge on which
true prosperity turns. To make it turn properly you have to know GENERALLY what God’s will
is for you and then you have to uncover what He SPECIFICALLY wants you to do.
The foundation is to make God the center of all your living. For married couples, this
means the husband is to be the strong provider, and the wife is to be the wonderful and gracious
helpmate but that neither is to be the center of the other’s life. Children are not to be the center
of their parent’s lives. They should be a delight--and vitally important--but not the most
important. Nor are jobs to be the center, nor hobbies, nor any earthly thing. All these things are
changeable. Spouses die, children grow up and leave home, job opportunities change, interests in
hobbies wane. Nothing temporal is certain, so if you think your purpose is to do something
human you will inevitably feel frustrated and unfulfilled even if you accomplish your purpose.
The minute you stop building and maintaining the temporal things of this world, decay sets in.
The world is full of ruins that time passed by.
Compare this with serving God, with loving Him supremely above all else, and acting out
only what He wants acted out. The wonderful results are apparent in this world, (Peace, joy,
love, goodness, prosperity, etc.) but there is also the unseen part: the glory and love He will share
with you when you come before His presence and He tells you, “Well done, good and faithful
servant.” This can only come about if your entire being is directed to knowing the Father, doing
His will and expressing the nature of Jesus Christ in this world. If your attention is divided,
maybe you will dedicate part of your life to serving God, and another part to pursing your own
goals and interests. God won’t bless that which is purely selfish interest and you will be caught
between not having the tine to do all you want that is humanly satisfying and not doing all you
know you should do for the kingdom of God.
A friend of mine, Louis, and I were talking recently. I asked him “Are you going to the
Bible study tomorrow morning?” We have a weekly meeting for men in the church who have
showed an interest in service.
“I’d really like to, but I have go some photo work to catch up on,” he replied.
That is normally a reasonable reply but Louis’ profession is not photography. Photography
is one of his many hobbies and interests. We have had more than one conversation about his use
of time. He likes vacations, and he likes to read books. He is knowledgeable in several fields.
When he didn’t know Jesus he devoted his time to what he liked. Now as a Christian, he finds it
very difficult to shift his priorities to what matters in the kingdom of God. He lives in a tension
because God is calling him to do the one thing in which he will find true fulfillment but he is still
embroiled in all his own concepts of what is good and pleasurable. Unless he gets beyond the
desire to please himself he will never altogether please God.
This is not to say he has not entered into eternal life, because he has, but there are degrees
of reward. The parable of the servants who were given talents illustrates this, and St. Paul plainly
states, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay , straw,
each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire;
and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it
endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself
will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor 3:11-15).
Is this clear to you? It is not just being a Christian that is important. It is what you do as a
Christian that God will judge! You might have the right foundation in your life, but if you have
not built according to God’s plan, you will not gain the complete reward God has for you.
You are here for one reason—to love God supremely and act out what He wants you to do.
When Jesus came to the earth he came to do a specific job and that was to manifest the nature of
God in healings, miracles, signs, wonders and to preach the Good News, to talk about and
demonstrate the love of God, and then to offer Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. As
Christians, that same Jesus has entered our hearts by His Spirit and wants to express His love
through us. Many people never accept this. They have other goals that in the end cause them
emotional instability. They can’t bring themselves to say, “Father, I am here to do your will no
matter what it costs me. I am ready to stop everything in my life that is not focused on what you
want me to do.”
At one time I was a pastor in Fairfield, CA. I decided that I was going to do something for
Jesus. I knew He had called me to be a preacher, so I set out to build a big church. I did not ask
God if He wanted a big church in Fairfield. It wasn’t a question of what He wanted to do through
me, but what I could do for Him. I didn’t understand His purpose, or have a vision for
accomplishing it. As a result my ministry smoldered rather than burn with the power of the Holy
Spirit. Eventually, I came against a group of people in the church who did not see things my
way, and I ended up resigning from the ministry in frustration and disillusionment rather than
fighting them at every turn. After several more years of trying to serve God my way, I presented
myself as a living sacrifice. Amazingly things started to happen. I started to practice what the
Word said and eventually I began pastoring a small church in Eureka, California, that I
mentioned earlier. My prayer to God was no longer, “Lord, here is the next wonderful thing I am
going to do for you,” but simply, “Use me.” Meanwhile, I had developed a thriving real estate
business with 13 sales people and three branch offices, and was planning to extend the system
even further and add a franchise package. The people in the church were content and happy and
they had a vision: They believed their congregation would be the sending-out point for a
worldwide missionary endeavor. I shared that vision with them and together we prayed that
God’s will be done with us.
Then, something happened. Some young people from the Jesus People Movement in the
1960’s and early 70’s came into my office looking for a building to rent. I had one available and
rented it to them. A short time later God showed me he wanted me to train them in His ways. I
did so in spite of the fact that most people in the community thought they were nothing more
than a gang of hippies on another religious “trip”. Before long we had a training center wirh over
two hundred people living there. I took my wife and family, left our comfortable home in Eureka
and went to minister to those fledging Christians in an overcrowded complex of rundown
buildings at a former Coast Guard Station. People kept flooding in and I found myself counseling
and teaching day and night.
One day while I was praying about what to do next, God spoke to me, “Shut down the real
estate business.”
That was a shock. I said, “Lord, did I hear you right? Don’t you mean I should sell the
business?” After so many years of failures I had at last established a profitable, expanding
business and wasn’t inclined to let it go.
The Lord’s answer came back, “Didn’t you say you wanted to do my will, and that you
were only the steward of this business, and that I am the real owner?”
“Yes, Lord.”
“Then shut the real estate business down.”
The next morning I called a meeting of the staff and told the managers and sales people I
was closing down the firm, but that I would give them all enough time to finish up whatever
sales they had pending and find new jobs. Some of them wanted to buy the company from me,
but I had already heard from God. Perhaps you’re thinking that I felt extremely insecure about
this move and was plagued by a sense of impending loss. No so! I had so completely identified
myself with the Lord’s purpose for my life and with the fact that He was the real estate business’
owner that all I could do is obey.
I closed the offices in an orderly fashion and went on to dedicate myself full-time to the
ministry. Not only did Dacie and I continue to prosper powerfully because the investments we
had made earlier took off, we actually became financially independent. By following God’s
purpose He provided for me materially and gave me a ministry that grew by leaps and bounds
and from state to state. I was free to devote all my time to whatever God showed me to do
without worrying one bit about finances.
I guarantee you that if you place yourself in God’s hands and if your purpose in life is His
purpose for you, you will experience the same success.
I repeat, make sure your whole life is centered on glorifying God. You were designed from
your mother’s womb to be his servant. As such, you have a job to do, and you need to know
what it is. As I studied the Bible I found that God’s purpose for us has three very distinct--yet
complimentary-dimensions. These I call the VISION, or the plan God has put in the Bible so that
we can grasp the scope of His plan for us.
The first great goal of this threefold vision is the unity of the church. We are to labor to see
the church become one and we are to be one with our Christian brothers and sisters. The only
way this is going to be possible is if we personally develop those character qualities that produce
harmonious relationships among men. This is the direct opposite of the sinful man’s tendency to
always be his own man, ready at any moment to separate himself form others to protect his
selfish interest (a tendency that works on individual and national levels). Jesus looked to join
men together in one heavenly kingdom and in one body. His prayer in John 17 is that all
believers be one in Him even as He and the Father are one. This is the principle of linking, of
bonding, of oneness. It is everywhere in the Bible.
Second, we are to be concerned for other people. We are to aim at preaching the Good
News of Salvation throughout the entire earth. Therefore, we are both concerned with missionary
activity, and open to becoming missionaries ourselves. St. Paul says, “ Let no one seek his own,
but each one the other’s well-being. (1 Cor 10:24).” The best thing that can happen to your
neighbor for his well-being is that he come to know Jesus as His Lord and Savior. You must be
ready to do whatever you can to fulfill this part of His desire that all come to the saving
knowledge of Jesus. You must link together with others to forward this great work of spreading
the Gospel to every nation and language.
The third part of the vision is that we are to strive individually and corporately to be like
Jesus. What greater glory can we give to God than to be so centered in Him that we want to see
as many as possible come into His kingdom, form into a unity of love and service, and become
like Jesus is! Instead of trying to be like some movie star, or famous person, or someone we
admire, we want ourselves to conform our lives to Jesus. When our lives begin to be filled with
His positive traits we become more and more godly in our actions, and thus we bless more and
more people, while we ourselves experience greater joy, love and peace.
Much of the tension in our lives comes from seeing that this is really what God wants from
us, but not wanting to give up the ideas and plans we have developed for ourselves. We have
already looked at the process by which the world plants conclusions in our minds. These
conclusions are what formed our worldly purpose and goals. Generally, they are no more than
responses to the fears that we had before we knew Jesus. Remember that Satan holds all men in
bondage through the fear of death. That fear includes all the lesser fears. We struggle after goals
that will supposedly free us from those fears. Some people pursue health through special diets
and exercises. This stems from a fear of sickness. Others chase after money, hoping that it will
free them from economic death. All of us have been trained by the world to struggle after goals
that are nothing more than futile attempts to eradicate fears. Even entertainment, which is a
desire to escape from the constant pressure to achieve goals, doesn’t satisfy a man for long.
There is really no satisfaction or security outside of God’s purpose. He keeps the man whose
heart is stayed on Him in perfect peace. It is His good pleasure to give you the desires of your
heart.
The catch is this: The desire of your heart has to be the desire of God’s heart. I have said
that your goal must be to glorify God, and I have presented a three-fold Biblical vision: Work for
the unity of the church, help your neighbor based on bringing him to Jesus, and dedicate yourself
to being like Jesus. The world has programmed you otherwise, but at this very moment say to
God, “Lord, here I am. I commit myself to steady my heart on You, to make your goals for my
life the only things I want to do. Take out of me all the wrong purposes that I have developed
mistakenly as a reaction to my fears or as a result of my lusts.”
As you fulfill this vision you will find that God’s blessing will overtake you and the old
fears and insecurities will disappear. You may have started out with a desire to make money or to
be healthy or to have many friends or whatever, but God will change all that into a godly desire
for prosperity. Can you see the difference? At first you worked after certain goals for your own
purposes. God now removes those wrong goals, and supplants them with his perspectives. In
relation to money, for example, you are no longer greedy or fearful; you simply understand that
God wants you to be prosperous—to have enough for youself and to give to others. The craving,
scheming and grasping after pleasures, goods, money, fame, etc., disappears and you have a
calm, peaceful desire to please God because this—and only this—gives you lasting satisfaction.
But don’t fool yourself into thinking your will is God’s will. A friend of mine, Wilbur, at
one point in his life was developing a natural foods farm and orchard. His particular vision was
to live a tranquil rural life, raise the healthiest possible fruits and vegetables, spend as much time
as possible in meditation, and eventually have a small retreat center where people interested in
oriental philosophy could come for a balanced time of physical work and spiritual study. Then
Wilbur became a Christian.
“What are you going to do now, Wilbur?” I asked him. “It’s all right to eat natural foods
and be a vegetarian, but your meditations and studies were no more than occult practices.
“I know that” Wilbur assured me. “No more magic and Eastern mysticism for me. My farm
is the Lord’s now, and it’s going to be a place where Christians can get out of the city for a time
of rest. We will have Bible studies, and there will be work to do so that visitors can get back in
touch with God in a practical way.”
“Sounds great, but did the Lord tell you that?”
There was a pause. Wilbur hadn’t bothered to ask God. He just assumed that what he was
doing (and what he was doing was what he liked) was what God wanted him to do if he just
“Christianized” his goals. Many new Christians make this same mistake. They are either so in
love with what they are doing that they think that God must be too, or they are so pushed by
fears and insecurities that they wouldn’t dare put aside their life goals—usually centered around
making money, by the way.
Wilbur worked on his farm for a whole year after becoming a Christian. He kept working
on the buildings, constructing terraces for the gardens, and planting fruit trees. He could not
interest any Christian groups in helping him with his project to bless the Lord. Finally, he came
to me and the other ministers who were working with me at the time and asked, “What am I
going to do? Nobody is interested in my retreat center. I have even offered free partnerships for
people to get involved. No takers. I am miserable out there by myself.”
Again I asked him “have you asked God if He wants you to do this wonderful thing for Him.? Is
this what you are supposed to do in life?”
“Well, I thought it was what I was supposed to do, but I can’t say that God exactly told me,”
Wilbur offered.
“I think you had better find out what God wants. There are lots of good things a man can do in
this life, buy only one direction God has for you.”
Wilbur did a lot of soul-searching and concluded that his natural foods farm and Christian
retreat center didn’t have anything to do with God, but with his own soulish desires. He asked
God what to do, and though it was hard to hear the answer because he was so attached to, and
comfortable with, his plan, he heard the answer. “Sell the place and I will show you what to do.”
The negotiations for the sale took about six months, but by the time they were done, the Lord had
given Wilbur a fine Christian wife, cash money to start out in his marriage (he almost doubled
his money on the land sale), and even opened up a ministry for him. He eventually became a
missionary and is now one of the directors of a growing international ministry. He is no longer
alone and miserable hoping that God will somehow bless his plan.
In a sense, what Wilbur experienced was deliverance from an old lifestyle that was making
him unfruitful in the kingdom of God. It is not enough to become a Christian, clean up a few bad
habits (for example, swearing, drinking, chasing after lusts), and then continue doing exactly
what you are doing before you became a Christian. You have to make sure what you now do has
the effect of influencing people positively toward Jesus. This is the yardstick: Will what I am
doing bring praise to God? If yes, the next question is “Do you want me to do this, Father?
This is the most difficult consideration of all. It is so easy to convince yourself that what
you want is what God wants. You have to come into a state of balance in your heart. You can’t
climb every mountain there is to be climbed. You can’t send all the money to Christian
outreaches that need to be sent. You can’t preach this Gospel personally to every person on the
earth. You have to have specific goals.
Say to God, “Lord, give me a clear and specific set of goals within your total plan.”
How is this done in the context of prosperity? God tells us that he wants us to prosper, to be
in health, and to be spiritually sound. Cry out to the Lord for that desire too. Say, “Show me how
to prosper. Please teach me what prosperity is: Teach me to be healthy without becoming
imbalanced about diet and exercise and rest. Teach me to be emotionally stable without have to
devote my time to every new psychological therapy. Teach me to be spiritually sound by opening
my understanding to Your Word. Help my soul to find rest and satisfaction in you instead of in
desiring even more and different diversions and gratification.”
In my own life I trace all my failures to the fact that even as a Christian I wasn’t living in
God’s purpose but in a set of personal illusions. There were so many things I wanted to do to
prove to myself and to others that I could be successful, that I could do something for God, that I
could make a place for myself in the world. None of them worked. I went from one delusion to
another hoping that God would bless what I was doing because I was doing it “for Him.” Of
course, he never did, and I careened from extreme to extreme until God said to me, “You haven’t
done my Will”.
The answer was so simple: True prosperity comes from recognizing what our personal
goals and desires are and giving them up for the will of God. Had I seized upon that at the
beginning of my Christian walk I would have avoided years of agony and the horrors of a ruined
business life, an ineffective Christian witness and ministry and a broken marriage. I believe it
was God’s mercy that allowed me to fail. God had to get the “me” out of me so he could put his
infinitely better life in mine. Other men actually have achieved goals not based in God’s will or
even in the moral principles of His Holy Bible. They have done so at the cost of their health,
their mental well-being, their families—and worse—at the expense of their eternal lives. God
mercifully spared me such a fate, and I pray you will benefit from the lessons I learned the hard
way.
Underline this in your heart: Every human life is made to express the life of Jesus to this
world. As he is, so are we to be in this world. As you pray, God will show you exactly what
direction to take to fulfill your calling. Each step on the way to true prosperity has already been
defined by the Lord. His Holy Spirit will guide you in the realization of your full potential. As
you study the nature of human desires in the next chapter you will begin to be able to identify
what inner urgings come from the world or from selfish impulses in your own being and what
desires come from God. You will find out how to channel the right desires into reality—just as
Moses channeled his God-given desire to see the Israelites freed into a world-changing victory
that brought them out of slavery in Egypt into the liberty of the Promised Land. Your personal
Promised Land is awaiting you as you align your will with God’s and release His desire for you
to this needy world. As Lillian Thrasher said, you are meant to change your generation and your
nation.
Chapter 17
“The Heart of Desire”
“Would you say that desire is one of the essential elements of success?” a man asked me
recently.
“Absolutely!” I fired back without hesitation, “Without it nobody would ever doing
anything.”
The reason we don’t put a premium on developing right desires these days is because far
too many people have fallen into the trap of either thinking that intensely desiring something,
with all the strong emotions and intellectual activity it implies, is somehow not “nice” or
“Christian.” Others have fallen into the snare of thinking that desiring and wishing are the same
thing. This is no so...
The desire I’m talking is the motivating force that makes a man go on after defeat and that
holds him up in the face of discouragement. It is an intense, strong, persistent, lifetime passion to
carry out a goal. Strong desires characterize the famous men and women of the Bible (and of all
history). Their ultimate success or failure depended on the goal of their desires.
Balaam, who the Moabite King Balak hired to curse Israel, had a strong desire to be rich
and famous, and he pursued that reckless path despite God’s warning He eventually was killed
by the very Israelites he had sought to subvert. His goal was wrong but the persistence his desire
fanned is quite remarkable.
A man whose desires were rightly channeled was King David. He said, “One thing I have
desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of
my life, (Psalm 27:4).” In Psalm 119:1-2 he says, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who
walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with
the whole heart!” There are many more Scriptures that show how desire for God and his will
flowed from David’s heart. The Bible reports that David was a man after God’s own heart. To
have any success we must have a strong desire burning from within and eagerly reaching out to
do what God wants.
Here are a few more excerpts from the long series of profound desires David expressed for
God: In psalm 119:
“I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me. My soul breaks
with longing for Your judgments at all times (vs. 19-20).”
“Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors (vs 24).”
“My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word (vs 81).”
“Therefore I love Your commandment (vs 127.)”
“I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Your commandments. (vs 131).”
These are fervent words. I offer them to you so you will know that God is well pleased with
properly placed passion and so that you will see that there is a force released when we go beyond
mere wishing into ardently desiring something and that that force will carry us to action.
Take the case of Bruno and Tania. He is a driver for the trucking firm where she works as a
secretary in the freight dispatcher’s office. They became acquainted when she was assigned to pr
epare the waybills for the route he served.
After a few routine business contacts, Bruno felt himself attracted to her because of her beauty
and her efficient yet friendly manner. Since he didn’t consider himself very handsome he hardly
talked to her except for what was necessary in their work. He was afraid he would look dumb or
that she put him off or that the other drivers would start kidding him, something like, “Ha, ha! Is
the ugly duckling interested in Cinderella?”
One day, one of his clients gave him a pair of tickets to a concert, and Bruno decided to
invite Tania. He had decided that he would stop wishing he knew Tania better and do something
about it.
She accepted, and that started a series of dates over a period of several months. By this time
Bruno was convinced that he loved her, but he was still hesitant to say anything.
Finally he decided to take the chance that would either end his dreams or open the door for
something better. He had planned on asking her out for dinner but instead he blurted out one
morning as she was handing him a sheet of shipping papers, “I want you to know I love you.”
Tania looked up from her typewriter and said, “Ive been waiting for you to say that,
because I love you too.”
The very second they both said that, their love was released to grow. It had been there for
some time, but it took DESIRE to help Bruno overcome all his feelings of inadequacy and act.
His desire also helped Tania to get past her own timidness and respond to him. Their mutual
confession (don’t forget about the principles of believe, confess, act) allowed their love to flow.
Some months later they married. Their desire motivated them to overcome their defects and
establish a permanent union.
Now what would have happened had Bruno come into the office every few days for his
work orders, but had never said anything to Tania about his interest in her? He would probably
still be walking in there WISHING he knew her better. Wishing is good for nothing. The Bible
says, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed (Proverbs 27:5).” Rebuke
communicates. Secret love is dead.
You have to have powerful desires or you won’t overcome the obstacles in your life. Just
make sure those desires are God’s. I have seen people fritter away valuable time with the most
ridiculous desires--like driving all over town at three in the morning looking for a vending
machine with their favorite brand of cigarettes. You are not made to waste your time, whether it
is desiring cigarettes or a million dollars. You are to strongly desire what God wants for you.
The Apostle Paul found himself confronted with desire on this level, according to Phil.
1:21. “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In this and the verses that follow he weighs
out his future course. His greatest desire--the one for which he had counted everything he was
and had before knowing Christ, as nothing more than garbage--was to be like Jesus, to manifest
His love to the world. If he lived he could do this. On the other hand, he knew that when he left
his physical body it would be to enter God’s eternal presence where there is only joy and
wonder.
He reported to the Phillipians, “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful
for you.”
I believe at this point in his life God was actually giving him choice, and he was
considering the possibilities. His decision was, “I know that I shall remain and continue with you
all for your progress and joy in the faith.”
As you meditate on these verses, just think of the tremendous desires that were tugging at
Paul’s heart. He had suffered much for the Gospel’s sake and now his Heavenly Father was
giving him the opportunity to be home. For the Christian who knows that physical death is the
doorway to God’s presence this is the promise of great rest. Yet Paul’s cry was, in essence,
“Lord, I want to be with you because I love you, and I yearn to see and touch and know you are
in a full way. What do you really want me to do?
This was the root desire in Paul, the overwhelming yearning that subordinated every other
consideration: to please God and not himself. And what God wanted above all was that Paul
should continue his work. Later, the time came when Paul realized he had fought the good fight
of faith, and that he had finished his course. He was ready to depart. He was just as happy to give
himself up to martyrdom then as he was earlier disposed to keep up the struggle against Satan.
What ruled him was a monumental desire for God and his will. This kind of desire knows not
the slightest possibility of defeat, for it is the heart of Jesus beating in a mortal man. Even when
his enemies killed Paul, they couldn’t silence His desire or his witness. Through the New
Testament his heart, spirit, courage, and persistence have inspired Christians down to our times.
When we rid ourselves of earthly desires and focus our yearning on Jesus Christ there is a
releasing of Power in our beings that moves us unalterably toward our God-ordained goals in
life.
This kind of desire is not mainly an emotional desire. Emotions come and go. If we let
them set our direction, we will come to sinful defeat. The man who marries in a burst of
passionate emotion is just as likely to divorce his wife in a fit of angered disillusionment. On the
other hand, the person whose desires are set in God will push forward persistently regardless of
his emotional or intellectual state.
A philosopher said, “Success is not a place, it is a journey.” St. Paul dedicated his lifetime
to fulfilling one desire, to allowing Jesus Christ to live His life in Paul’s. I am also on a journey,
pursing a desire that I hope to see fulfilled in my life time. If it is not, I will be content if I have
done as much as possible toward that which God set before me. To work for the unity of the
church, to promote the preaching of the Gospel throughout the earth, and to be like Jesus. The
desire to fulfill this threefold vision moves my life as I hope it will yours.
Now within this great overall desire you will encounter many lesser desires, and it is all
right to pursue them if you have rightly identified them as such and are sure that God wants you
to do so. You might feel that God is guiding you into a business venture. No business should
ever be the object of our desire. The desire to have a successful business should be a part of your
grand desire to glorify God. The latter requires a lifetime journey; the former is something you
can do within a reasonable defined time limit.
I say “reasonably defined time limits” because without them you will be wishing. Suppose
you feel that God is prompting you to go into an agricultural implements business. Your goal is
that by the time your children are grown, you will have set aside a portion of your wealth for
them and for your grandchildren, and will still have enough of an income to go to a foreign
country as a missionary agricultural consultant. Your main desire is to serve God; the other is a
means. If you are a wishful thinker the years will go by, your children will grow up and leave
home, and you will still be working at a job and thinking about the mission field.
Therefore, assuming you have done your praying and seeking God’s will, your first task is
to translate your desire into a time frame. You say, “In 20 years I will be financially independent
by taking such and such steps. Furthermore, I will seek missionary training, I will learn a foreign
language, I will work actively in my local church and support its work, and I will spend part of
my vacation time working at rural mission stations.”
You now arrange your life to make these desires a reality. You will no longer allow
circumstances to shape your day. You will rule events to whatever degree it is possible. The final
ingredients are a direct commitment of the will coupled to an ardent desire persistently exercised
over a long period of time. If you allow your desire to burn down and lose its fire, you will find
that circumstances have a way of crowding out every important move you have to make toward
accomplishing your purpose. That is why it is a good idea to write down what you desire and
how you expect to accomplish your desires. This fits right in with confessing with the mouth.
You have a record of your confession and the plan you will use to accomplish it to serve as both
a reference and a reminder.
Perhaps the plan fails. You make some investments and they don’t work out. Or you buy a
foreign language course and you can’t seem to learn even a basic phrase. Is this failure?
Emphatically no! if that original desire is still burning within your heart! You revise your
plan and go on revising until it works. Then you fit it into that overall desire you have to glorify
God. The ups and downs that mark your passage on this journey have a very real purpose from
God’s point of view: He shakes everything that can be shaken so that which cannot be shaken
remains. An analogy is the wormy immature apples on a storm-swept tree. The bad apples fall to
the ground, and the good ones remain. Sometimes we THINK our desires are from God and we
set out to manifest them only to find that no amount of dogged determination will help us
because we had wrongly focused our desires.
A good friend of mine some years ago became engaged to a young woman. Since he was a
junior in college they decided to put of their desire to get married until after he graduated.
Meanwhile they began saving money and making plans for their future. On the very day he
brought her the engagement ring from the jewelry store, they decided to break off the
relationship. It was a difficult decision for the both of them. In retrospect my friend mentioned
that he could now see that it was the hand of God that shook their relationship before they had
taken the final step to marriage. Rather than consider the broken engagement a defeat or a
rejection he considered it as a learning experience. He later married a wonderful woman. In the
first instance, though my friend had carefully considered the step and felt his desire for marriage
was correct, it was not. To have insisted on making such a desire real would have been disaster.
Yet, because he aligned his life with God’s will and made God’s desire the desire of his heart,
the Lord brought the right woman at the right time, and put the same yearning in both their
hearts. The result is a marriage that has withstood the shaking of the storms of circumstances and
that has been a blessing and service to many.
In summary, in order to accomplish anything of worth in this world we must have Godgiven goals and we must have a burning, unquenchable desire to make them real. Then we must
allow that desire to overcome fear, ridicule and condemnation. We must readjust when we find
we have misplaced certain desires. If we do these things there is no force or power under heaven
that can prevent that desire from coming to a full completion. St. Paul knew this secret. So did
King David. Jesus so desired to do His Father’s will and save the world, that even the cross of
Calvary and the burdens of mankind’s sins were not powerful enough to deter him from
complete victory. Desire. Use it to change your world. God has put its transforming power in
your hands.
Chapter 18
“Overcoming Guilt and Condemnation”
At this exact moment there is a battle going on around you. It is a battle for your mind, and
the stakes are your ultimate success or failure in life. The enemy is Satan, and his objective is to
get you to reject the truth that God wants you to prosper, materially, to be in health and to
experience mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. He will try to get your family, friends,
church—your very thoughts—to question the principles of true prosperity as you being to put
them in practice.
The beachhead he will try to establish on the frontiers of your mind is in the area of
material prosperity, and the heavy artillery he will hurl against you is guilt and condemnation. If
he can breach your defenses at this point, he will effectively cut you off from victorious living.
You will spend the rest of your life held up with a “hold the fort” mentality. That is the way of
thinking that it is enough to believe in Jesus, and try to live a clean life, and hope that He comes
back soon to free us from this sinful world. That is absurd. We are not called to defend ourselves
from the world. We are equipped by God for battle to deliver this world from the hands of the
wicked one and establish the kingdom of God.
St. Paul warns us not to let the devil get a forward position in our territory, for we are not
ignorant of his schemes. And the one he uses with great effectiveness in the area of prosperity is
a false appeal to our consciences. He knows that as Christians we are sensitive to God’s Word, to
his will for our lives. He knows we want to do what is right, so his first ploy is a propaganda
campaign aimed at Christians. To the world he holds up the pursuit of riches and power. He
knows these things will easily trap the unwary and bring them into captivity. To the Christian
who has been warned about the deceitfulness of riches he holds up—as he has seen—a false idea
of poverty.
The familiar misquote, “money is the root of all evil,” is part of his campaign (1 Tim 6:10
actually says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil [italics mine]”). Certain
Scriptures combined in unusual ways will almost seem to make a case for Christian poverty. Add
to that guilt that all of us grew up within a world of sin, and the result is that many Christians feel
very badly about being financially prosperous. They think it is somehow wrong, and that if they
have too many blessings they will have to pay dearly for them in the future.
They dispel this false idea the Scriptures say, “The blessing of the LORD makes one rich,
and He adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22).” We have seen in the chapter on “Blessings and
Cursing” that God abundantly gives to those who follow Him. This is enrichment from without
and from within. What the Lord gives us is meant to last into eternity. God is not an “Indian
giver.” We must meditate on the whole truth and his Word and root out all the old guilt ideas.
I recall when I was a child, older people—in order to get me to finish my supper—would
say, “Eat everything on your plate. Don’t you know there are millions of people starving in
China.”
Of course I made the connection that if I didn’t eat the food set before me I somehow
would be unappreciative and sinful. Later, Satan parleyed that kind of guilt to a higher level. Not
making use of what I had was not only bad, having it was bad too.
For example, consider the normal fund raising effort by Christian charitable organizations.
The basis is rarely straight forward, “Folks, here is a wonderful opportunity to serve God. We are
working with children in the Congo who need to hear the Gospel. Let’s help them with food,
clothing, and housing while we teach them how God can transform their lives”.
The pattern is more like a photo of a scrawny child with bulging eyes and a distended belly,
or an emaciated mother with a thin baby at her withered breast, or simply dead bodies, the
victims of some gruesome disaster. The photos and text challenge you to question whether you
possibly can be a rich Christian in a world of such want. The overall design is to stir up those
quilt feelings that somehow you have more than others and it’s just not right.
The next step is that you say to yourself, “How can I have so much when those people are
starving?” You reach into your pocketbook and give the amount of money that eases your guilty
conscience.
The theory behind this style of fund raising is that somehow you have to help equalize the
wealth. They don’t have, and you do; so give, and you will help diminish the imbalance. God’s
point of view is somewhat different: If you learn to give, he will give you even more. If you give
of that increase, he’ll give you still more. And if you lead those Congolese to Jesus, and teach
them to give too, then they’ll prosper. That is God’s way. There’s no limit to the wealth God
will pour out on those who obey Him. The only word of caution is, “Never give to get. Give to
give.” This also has been stated that as you prosper by practicing God’s principles, “Increase
your giving, not your living.” If you understand this, you will not fall into guilt or condemnation,
but have a healthy desire to give and to serve because God wants you to remember the poor, not
because somebody makes you feel guilty but because you have a healthy desire to give and to
serve. You to remember the poor because you want to help others, not because somebody makes
you feel guilty about what you have.
The next attack—once we have gotten over the fact that we have and others don’t—is from
the person who asks us, “Do you really think that all this emphasis on prosperity is right? There
are souls perishing, the world is on the brink of disaster. Isn’t there something you can do
besides chase the almighty dollar?”
“That kind of question is really not a question. The asker is only trying to manipulate your
feelings of guilt so you will think, “You’re right! How can I be concerned about providing for
my children’s children. I will go to the Congo immediately and be a missionary.” Most likely
you won’t actually do that, but you will feel miserably about what you are doing and if you let
your thoughts condemn you, you’ll abandon your prosperity goals and very definitely not be in a
place to help anyone. That is a Satanic scheme, and the devil uses well-meaning but badlyinformed people to make it work. Let’s look at the absurdity of the “Isn’t there something better
you can do?” position. Suppose you were to ask that person. “How come you are still here telling
me that? What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice. Isn’t
that rather extravagant when you could have eaten oatmeal and sent the rest of the money to the
Congo? And how many hours did you sleep last night? Eight hours. Don’tyou think you cand do
something better than spend a third of your lifetime in bed? Can’t you cut down to six hours a
day and use your time to do something really important--like working at a shelter for the
homeless?”
That person would be on the defensive because there are really no answers to those kinds
of questions outside of a man’s personal relationship with the Lord. Find out what the Bible says
and what God wants from you and base your peace of mind on that, not on the demands men
make on your time and money.
In relation to material prosperity, we have seen that great men like Job and Abraham were
extremely wealthy. In the days of Solomon, Jerusalem was such a wealthy city that gold was
counted like silver, and silver like bronze. Wealth is not wrong, striving after riches is. Satan will
try to imply that you are striving after money when you start to put your budget in order.
Someone will say to you, “I see you are paying a lot of attention to your budget, and to your job,
and studying investments, and looking into trust funds for your children. Aren’t you striving after
riches?
Prudence and pursuit are totally different things. The prosperous man doesn’t pursue
riches. That is ungodly. He is prudent with what he has. Like the man whose master gave him
five talents and he invested and made 10, your goal is not to make money, but to please your
Master—Jesus—with the best possible use of your time and talent. God will add material riches
to you. They are A RESULT of doing His will, not a pursuit in themselves. If you remember this,
you need not be condemned by any man about the prosperity God is giving you. Believe me,
God wants everyone to prosper and be in health. If we were all prosperous from doing things
God’s way there would not be any poor to help. After all there is quite enough to go around. It is
when men don’t practice prosperity in God’s way that poverty becomes an inevitable
consequence (excluding, of course, the results of persecutions).
It may happen that as our Heavenly Father blesses you that you make a mistake and buy
something truly extravagant. This does not mean money has turned your head and now you are
going to be a selfish spender. It means that you have some areas in your life that need to be
transformed. It may be that as a child you never had any money, and now that you do, you spend
it foolishly on something you always wanted but which has no real value. Repent and go on;
don’t feel guilty about having made the money. If you do this, you will defeat Satan’s designs
and you will become to know the truth of St. Paul’s statement, “There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).”
Chapter 19
“How to dominate your Fears”
One of the saddest mottos I have ever seen is the constant reminder of what a young sailor
had tattooed on his forearm. It was a warship sinking into a tumultuous sea. About it were
inscribed large letters, “Born to Lose”. Oddly enough, that same motto is the title of a song that
gained national popularity two different times. The theme spoke of a man who had lived his life
in vain, the years had only brought him pain, and finally, he was losing his woman. What could
he expect from such a negative faith picture of himself!
The world is full of people who for one reason or another have come to look on themselves
as failures, flops, or freaks. I guess the great bulk of them—aside from those with congenital or
acquired mental or emotional disorders and the like—are people who could not handle criticism,
fear or both. For example, when I was a child growing up in Chicago I had a friend whose
parents had a different view of sickness than mine did. Instead of giving him positive attitude
about health, his parents constantly imparted fear to Charlie. If he went out to play on a cool day
without his sweater, his mother would cry out, “Charlie come back here! You will catch your
death of a cold if you don’t get something on. Do you want to die?”
That is a far different statement then if his mom had said. “Come back here a minute,
Charlie, I want to talk to you. Here you are. Put your sweater on. You’ll be nice and warm.” That
is the kind of input a child needs. My folks, on the other hand, had a completely different
outlook. They simply did not believe we would get sick. Sometimes a friend would get sick from
some contagious disease like measles or whooping cough, and his house would be quarantined.
That never stopped my family from visiting the sick.
I said something like, “In school they said if we get exposed to chicken pox (or whatever)
we will catch it too.” My parents would retort, “You are healthy. You are not going to get any
chicken pox.”
The remarkable fact is that except for a three-day rash, I never had a childhood disease.
You could say that I had a strong immune system or that it was coincidental, but I believe
because my family did not program me to think “disease” I simply did not leave room in my
being for illness.”
I have discussed at length how the successful person develops a sense of security stemming
from his trust in God, and how he allows the Lord to shape his personality. What I didn’t
mention is that sometimes this is a long uphill battle. This is especially true if we have received
constant negative training—fears placed into our hearts, criticism of our every action, disdain for
our opinions, and even rejection of our person. Overcoming all this negativity can happen by a
miraculous touch of the Holy Spirit. More often is the process of being transformed by the
renewing of our mind. Obviously, the faster we accept what God says is true, the quicker He will
free us from every bondage. To help you identify the basic areas of fear, and learn to overcome
them and prevent their return, I am going to expose again to the tool Satan most uses to try to
keep you in bondage and. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that Jesus rendered the devil powerless by
taking from him the power of death that he had used for millennia to instill fear in human beings
and to make them his unwilling and often unwitting slaves.
Some psychologists say, “Fear is nothing more than a state of mind.”
That is true but it does not make any less real the fact that for many it is a permanent state
that warps not only their minds but their bodies and spirits. For the person who does not know
God, all fears boil down to the fear of death. This is the devil’s number one tool. Death is a great
and terrifying mystery—some horrible and unknown destiny. Men have devised all kinds of fairy
tales to allay their fears, and some have gone to the extreme of saying that death is a finality, that
we are just highly evolved matter, that we will return to a different state of matter, that there is
no such thing as an eternal spirit. Whatever the explanation, fear rules. Christians, of course,
have eternal life because they believe in the One who has conquered sin and death by His
crucifixion and resurrection. For them there is only life. They have no fear of the afterlife. But
they may be more or less subject to the lesser fears because they do not understand the fullness
of the work Jesus has done for them.
Sickness is probably one of the greatest fears, because a lingering illness is like a living
death. Around it revolve many other fears like emotional and economic death. I know the case of
a pregnant young woman who had an apparently terminal illness. Her husband considered her as
good as dead and left her for another woman. The woman lived through the pregnancy and gave
birth to a healthy child. Through the glory of God she had come to know Jesus as her Lord and
Savior. Though her husband and provider left her, the family of the church stepped into the gap.
Had this woman not known Jesus, think of the fear and anguish she would have had to face: sick,
weak mother of an infant, and rejected by the man who had covenanted to stand by her for better
or worse, in sickness and in health.
The Scripture is clear that by the beatings that Jesus received we are healed, and our key
verse in 3 John 2 says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just
as your soul prospers.” Many Christians don’t quite believe this.
They have an attitude like, “I don’t think I am going to get sick, but then you never know.
After all, didn’t God let Job get sick with sore boils and didn’t Timothy need a little wine for his
stomach’s sake and his frequent sicknesses...” Anyone who thinks like that ought to forget the
exceptions and look carefully at the rule. The rule is: The devil wants us sick. Jesus wants us
healthy.
Look at the Scripture and understand that God is our Health, which by the way, is one of
His Old Testament titles. To say something like, “Well, I know God wants us healthy, but I am
not so sure it really works like that,” is to reestablish yourself as a transgressor in that area of
your life. What is a transgressor? Somebody who does not believe what God says. In other
words, you know what the Bible says, but you decide that the circumstances really fit the
conclusions you drew when you in the world. You re-establish the fact, fact, fact, conclusion
process in your life and live by that instead of by God’s Word. Just like the man who was “born
to lose”, you will reap the consequences of your belief. To avoid that negative fate it is necessary
to maintain a strong biblical position about health. This is not the power of positive thinking or
some mind exercise that says sickness does not exist. It is a simple belief that God want you
healthy, and that should be enough to dispel any fears.
Another area is fear of poverty, which is actually fear of economic death. I have already
discussed this subject in other contexts.
A third is fear of old age. I believe that with the breakdown of the traditional family
system, this fear will try to enter into Christian lives in a stronger way unless we take positive
steps to identify the roots of the problem and pull them out. The Beatles caught the essence of
this fear in a line from one of their songs, “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when
I’m sixty-four?” People fear that no one will love them anymore or that they will get sick and
incapacitated and be sent to a nursing home, or that they will lose all their money or their house.
Anyone prone to this fear does not have to look far for examples in modern youth-oriented
American society. The system tells you that by the time you are 65 you should retire and get out
of the way so more vigorous and dynamic people can take your place.
On the job, an older man might hear something like, “Hey Pop, let me give you a hand
there. Looks like you are really starting to slow down.” This is no desire to help but a put down.
A younger employee would never say that to an old man who is president of the company. The
basic problem is a breakdown in respect for the aged. Older people greatly fear that. Government
programs aimed at “senior citizens” aren’t to honor them, but to deal with the problem of “the
aged in our society.”
Unless God’s people do something to reverse this trend, more and more Christian old
people will begin to feel useless and discarded when they could really be dedicating themselves
to great works for Jesus. The process of eliminating this fear of old age is manifold. But from
the point of view of the individual, putting into practice the principles of this book will prepare a
man or woman to lead a secure, vigorous, prosperous life and to see death as a vanquished
enemy on that day when it is time to be called to the Father’s side. From the point of view of
how we should consider the aged, a good first step is to honor age. Paul explicitly told Timothy,
to whom he had delegated a great deal of spiritual authority, “Do not rebuke an older man, but
exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers (I Tim 5:1-2).”
In the Old Testament we find, “You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the
presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD (Lev 19:32).” Younger people were to
accord the same deference, respect, and esteem to old people as to a military or civil official. The
Bible teaches that wisdom and sound counsel reside in the aged. Because that honor has
disappeared a terrible fear has entered older people today, and it is showing itself in senility.
Compare the doddering old man in a nursing home with the vigor of an Abraham or Isaac. The
men and women of those days never disconnected from their jobs or their homes. As their
physical strength diminished, they were esteemed for their experience and understanding. As
their sons tilled the fields or did the heavy daily work of the business, they provided guiding
counsel and expertise and they taught the grandchildren. The grandmothers likewise instructed
their daughters and daughters-in-law in child-rearing so that the continuity and knowledge of the
generations was not lost. They taught their granddaughters the arts and crafts needed to care for
their own families.
Today, older people are programmed for worthlessness. They are told that sometime
between the ages of 60 and 67 they will be too old and feeble to work and that the best thing is to
plan for retirement—have some fun, travel, pursue hobbies; that is: stay out of the way. They
visit their son’s family for a few weeks then go to visit the daughter a few weeks, and try to be
very careful not to “interfere,” or to outstay their welcome. They don’t want to be a burden. They
go home and sit, or putter around the house or go down to the senior citizens center to take a
craft class with people who are as desperate as they are. Eventually, because there is no valuable
challenging interaction with the family, the job, the general society, they begin to detach
themselves from the exterior world. Their minds wander. Maybe one of their children stops by
to take them home for a week or two and the comment is, “Dad is really slipping. Yesterday he
could not remember the kids’ names. Maybe we out to get him into a nursing home before he
hurts himself or burns the house down.” The sad part is that old people today know that the
picture I have just painted is more likely to be the norm than the biblical pattern in which they w
ill be honored and cherished.
To avoid this scenario we must allow a biblical attitude toward the old in our lives. Because a
man sows what he reaps, it is important that you sow the correct perspectives. For example,
Proverbs 17:6 says “Children’s children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is
their father,” while Proverbs 16:31 tells us, “The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, if it is
found in the way of righteousness.” If these attitudes come into a Christian’s heart he will have
no need to fear old age. He will plan to go on actively working for God’s kingdom. At the same
time he will encourage those older than himself to do so, purposefully becoming a man of
righteousness and a source of pride for his children. This will produce what the Bible has always
maintained: a fruitful old age that is a gift from God, a time for joy and comfort, a time to impart
wisdom to younger hearts.
Going on to the other kinds of fears, another of the most common is losing a loved one.
Parents fear their children will reject them. Wives are afraid their husbands will find a younger,
more attractive woman. Husbands are afraid their wives will find a more successful man. Again,
the delinquency and divorce rates seem to give substance to these fears. Unless you can make
your family feel loved and secure and wanted, Satan will come in with lies to sow discord and
division. He does it easily because we carry those old fear patterns with us until the Holy Spirit
changes them.
A husband, instead of surrounding his wife with love may get angry with her over some
point, and say, “You’re not the only woman in town!”
She might respond, “If you don’t like how I do things, you know where the door is.”
As the love bond begins to break down and jealousy and doubts rush in, the wife starts
thinking, “Maybe when he says, “You’re not the only woman in town,” he’s telling me he has
found someone else.” The door is now open to the fear of losing her man, and maybe she reacts
by nagging him about where he is going and what he is doing. Worse, she begins looking for
someone who promises her love and security.
Little children, living in that kind of environment, are very susceptible to fears, “What will
happen if daddy goes away?” Older children just drift off and because they don’t now what love
really is, they get mixed up in all kinds of twisted relationships that drive into them more fears of
losing a loved one. The only thing that will prevent these fears, or replace them with security and
love is to practice God’s Word.
The fear of criticism is closely allied to that of losing a loved one. If people criticize you,
you tend to move away from them, to not want to relate to them. You may even strike back
verbally or physically. The result in social death. On the other hand, there is a place for
criticism. The successful man has taught himself no to react when someone points out something
to him. The other person may be speaking from love or from hate but if there is something
useful in the criticism the wise man is open to receive it and to put the idea of a violent reaction
out of his mind. Instead of fearing criticism, use it. Proverbs 9:8-9, says “Rebuke a wise man,
and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a just man,
and he will increase in learning.” King David said, “Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a
kindness. And let him rebuke me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my head not refuse it (Psalm
141:5).”
If you can receive criticism in this way, you won’t need to fear what people say about you.
Your humbleness will eventually gain over your detractors. Your willingness to learn and change
will cause your friends to love you more. At the same time, to promote harmony and well-being
among family and friends, make sure you know how to offer correction, admonishment, and
rebuke in the biblical manner. This will greatly alleviate the fears of people around you. If you
have a reputation for gentleness, kindness and temperance, then when you have to say a critical
word to someone, he will accept you as a friend, perhaps intuitively understanding what the
Bible teaches, “the words of a friend are faithful.” If you are not a contentious, nagging person
who never has a good word to say about anything, you will find that people be drawn to you and
very little negative criticism will come your way. When it does come, the ability to hear, to sit
and listen to something that is unfavorable to you, to put yourself in the place of a learner, will
help make the difference between being a success or a failure. Do what the Bible says, “heed
instruction, receive discipline, and be wise all the days of your life.”
There is another fear that enters our lives from earliest childhood. In a photography
magazine recently there was a photo by the famous child photographer Suzanne Szasz showing a
young mother feeding her baby while another of her children stood at her side. The caption read,
An older child waits unhappily for mother’s attention.” Unless baby’s older sister learns that she
too is wanted and cared for, and that her parents have enough love for them all, she may very
well turn into a competitor rather than a collaborator in the family. In these situations
competition really stems from the fear of rejection. In school the smart children, the physically
attractive, and the athletes receive the attention. Everyone gets the idea that only these types
make it to the top. People begin to focus on what other people think and on what they are going
to do, rather than on realizing that God made them each with a unique purpose that no one else in
the world can fulfill. The successful man does not preoccupy himself with competing, or with the
supposed competition. For him there is no competition, except the internal urge to be everything
that God calls him to be.
When competition enters into any human relationship, insecurity follows and life becomes
miserable. Take the situation in the appliance department of a large store where there are two
salesmen and the manager. One of the salesmen, Bill, begins speaking quite regularly to the store
owner about sales, about how to better the floor plan, about advertising campaigns, and the like.
Rod, the manager, seeing that Bill is bypassing him and taking his ideas directly to the boss
starts getting frightened. He tells his wife, “That Bill is after my job. I am going to have to do
something about him.”
Rod begins promoting changes in the department and shifting sales that he can’t personally
handle to Jed, the other salesman. Meanwhile he tells the boss how undependable Bill is and
about how he talks a lot but produces very little. The rivalry does nothing for goodwill and
harmony among the employees and finally the owner decides to let Bill go. Rod has won the
competition but he is left with the fear that maybe the boss didn’t like the way he handled the
situation and perhaps thought that Bill did have some good ideas. He is worried now that the
boss is just waiting for another manager to come along to replace him. The owner, meanwhile,
has his own set of fears. He is afraid that Rod, who has been with the company 15 years, who has
built up personal contacts in the appliance business, and who knows the ins and outs of
promotion and sales, will take a job offer with a competitor.
The Christian avoids all these pitfalls by doing two things: He always does the best work
he is able to do. He treats everyone with kindness, love and respect. He sees himself as a coworker, as a helper, as a servant. His interest is not to compete with, or be better than, anyone
else. He tries to promote everyone else’s security and help them in their tasks. Second, he knows
that if he is doing this, no person or power can remove him from whatever position he is in
without God’s consent, and the Lord does not capriciously deal with His people. These two
realizations are a great wellspring of peace in a society preoccupied with the fear of competition,
rejection and displacement on every level.
With all these fears pressing upon us from every side and at all times it is very easy to lose
a personal sense of worth. Much of how we see ourselves comes from the outside—from those
who threaten us. That is why we must constantly meditate on God’s word and on who he says we
are. Our value is infinite not because of what we think of ourselves, or of what others think of us,
but because God loves us and has placed His Spirit in us to make us like Jesus. Franklin
Roosevelt made an interesting propaganda statement during the trying days that spanned the
Great Depression and the Second World War. He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself.” In other words, when a man reacts from fear, he generally gets himself in a worse
situation. We should have no fear of fear. We are only to fear God in a positive, reverential way.
This does not mean that we won’t have moments of being afraid of things, but the natural
human reaction of fright is not the same as a fear that dominates a man’s life. When Queen
Jezebel threatened the prophet Elijah with death, he was so afraid that he fled and hid in a cave.
Human beings naturally shrink from danger, trouble and torture. This is a protective response.
Yet when the Lord called him to go back to Samaria to confront the royal family with a
devastating prophecy, Elijah overcame his fears and did what he was told. He called down fire
on his dripping wet sacrifice to Jehovah in the presence of King Ahab and the 450 prophets of
Baal who had been unsuccessful in getting their god to ignite their sacrifice. Then he had those
450 idolaters put to death. The Bible says he was a man with a nature like ours. What
transformed him was his willingness to overcome fear by acting on God’s Word. In like manner,
as you study the Scriptures, internalize them. Make them your personal perspective. You will be
able to conquer every fear that attempts to impede you from complying fully with your Godgiven purpose in life. Not only will your life be a success, your courage, steadfastness and
security and confidence in the face of every fear will inspire those around you to root their lives
in a godly faith that can’t be shaken by appearance or circumstance.
Chapter 20
“Keeping Body, Soul and Spirit Together”
The famous preacher Charles Wesley once said, “Can you not tell me why, when I feel
shame in my soul, I blush in my body; or when someone slaps me in the face I feel ashamed in
my soul?
He asked that to underscore the fact that there is a vital connection between our exterior
and interior man. Unless that connection is grounded on a harmonious balance among the parts
of our being, prosperity will elude us. When God made us He made us in three parts: body, soul,
and spirit. Further, He gave us an intellect, emotions, and free will and a memory, which all
reside in our soul. All these elements operated in perfect harmony in the first man Adam. When
he sinned, his spirit died and his soul nature took control of his body. This has been the case of
every unregenerated man since.
Jesus re-established direct contact between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of man. We
are now working to make our soul natures conform to what God’s Spirit wants from us. To the
degree that we do so, prosperity will enter our lives. In our key verse 3 John 2, the Apostle links
material prosperity and good health to the prosperity of our soul. The problem is that our souls
are so used to ruling our bodies that they don’t respond as quickly and deeply as they should to
our spirits. When we didn’t know Jesus, different parts of our souls dominated the other parts
and also our bodies, and this tendency continues into the Christian life unless corrected.
Some people are intellectual. They carefully filter everything through their brains, and
they place a high premium on intelligence. Others are emotional. They burst out in anger or joy,
or in depression or exaltation. Still others have extremely powerful wills and are able to bend
their bodies to hard tasks. In any event, the dominant part of the soul is the expressive
mechanism of the inner being, just as the body is the expressive mechanism of the outer being.
Neither of them, however, is able to contact the Spirit of God. That’s why true prosperity is only
possible in a Christian context. The non-Christian has to depend entirely on his natural resources.
The Christian is in direct communication with God, and his Spirit feeds him and helps him to
change. He does not depend on his intellect, his emotions, or his willpower or on the strength of
his body. He says, “Lord help me.”
At this point, God’s Spirit communicates with his spirit and tells him what to do. Then
the warfare begins. The Christian soul is a two-way communications receptor. It can receive
instructions from God, and also from the world. Since it was accustomed to making decisions
based on worldly input, it doesn’t want to submit to the spirit. Remember, until Jesus came into
our lives, our souls ruled us as they wanted, and that usually meant in the direction of sinful selfgratification. This is when the spirit must say, “Soul, you be quiet.” You will do what God
wants.” I actually say that out loud to myself, and don’t think it at all strange. King David talked
to his soul. For example, he says in Psalm 103:1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is
within me, bless His holy name.” Why? Because David’s soul wanted to do something besides
render proper homage to God. It needed a “talking to” just the way a child does sometimes. In
fact, David says “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me (Psalm 131:2)” That’s a powerful picture! Imagine a
child who has been breast fed for a couple of years as was done in those days. He is accustomed
to being fed when he demands. Suddenly it is time to stop drinking mother’s milk and go on to a
different diet. That child cries and screams, but finally comes to the understanding, “Mommy is
not going to nurse me anymore. There is no sense whining about it. I’ll just do what I have to
do.”
That is how David’s soul became. When his spirit said, “Now I am going to do this,” his
soul didn’t fly into an emotional outburst, or into an intellectual chill. It obeyed meekly and
quietly—like a weaned child.
When your soul arrives at the point where it too has learned to quietly listen to God’s
leading through your spirit, the transformation process that Romans 12 speaks of can take place
in your life. Before that, as a baby Christian, you wanted to do God’s will but your mind and
emotions tried to block the changes. This also happens to older Christians. I talked to a man, not
long ago who had been serving the church as a leader, but didn’t seem to be making much
headway.
“Mel, do you want to serve God with all your heart?” I asked.
“You bet,” he replied.
“Then you’re going to have to dedicate more time to the people God has given you to care
for and less time to your personal pursuits.” Mel likes sports, and as much spare time as he can
muster goes to either playing or to watching sports on television. By the end of our conversation
it was clear to both of us that Mel wasn’t going to change at that time. He was too attached to
relaxation, to the emotions connected with his sports. In the end, he decided to lay aside his work
in the church.
You have to guard yourself from letting your soul get the upper hand on your spirit.
Because of its limited perspective, your soul always looks for the easiest, most pleasing
experiences. You must be able to say, “This is what God wants. I will do that.” If you don’t, you
will find the different parts of your being warring against each other for control. It is not
necessary to understand every aspect of the interaction of the different parts of ourselves. Even
theologians and psychologists disagree. Some say we are two-part beings, that the soul and spirit
are really one. Others say the spiritual heart is in the soul while some assert that the heart
overlaps the spirit and soul, and a few claim the heart is the soul. The Bible is not clear. What is
obvious from Scripture is that God’s purpose is to bring all the warring elements in you into
alignment with His will so that you can say, “Father, I see that your way is right and good. I
commit my whole being to doing what you want. Please strengthen me.” God will then impart to
you the grace that makes transformation possible. The old habits and patterns will go and the
various elements of your being will blend together into a harmoniously interacting whole that
gives great glory to God.
There is much to say about the relationship between body, soul and spirit, and especially
about bringing the soul nature into conformity with God’s direction. I have written a book
entitled Training Your Soul that details this process and is a great help to those who wish to
cooperate more effectively with God in this transformation process. Consider it as
complementary reading as you continue learning to live a God-centered life in which every
element of your being forms part of an integrated whole that radiates the glory of God.
Chapter 21
“Let your Old Emotions Go”
A man and wife came to me one day with a marriage problem. The wife claimed that her
husband wasn’t meeting all her physical needs.
“Is that so?” I asked.
“I guess so” he hedged. “I’m just not very interested in that sort of thing.”
“I don’t think he loves me,” she countered.
“But I do,” he said. “I just don’t have the same kind of physical desires you have.”
I could see quickly that telling him to pay more attention to his wife wasn’t the solution.
His problem went far deeper than lack of interest. We went to prayer, and as we prayed the Holy
Spirit touched this man’s heart and showed him that since his childhood he had considered
sexual relations “dirty”. The reason was that as a youngster he found out his father had had
adulterous affairs and even had several children by different women. He had made a connection
in his mind between his father’s infidelity and sex, and if because one was wrong, both were
wrong. That realization of the false connection was the beginning of a healthy attitude toward
sex and toward his wife’s physical needs. How extraordinary that something that happened in
childhood had a powerful effect on shaping this young man’s emotional life to the point that he
had come to suppress one of man’s deepest physical and emotional responses in the marriage
relationship! He had become a slave to a warped set of emotions and attitudes. Unfortunately his
case is not unique. Literally millions of people go through life with crippled emotions because
of events in their childhood about which they are only dimly aware or because of previous sinful
behavior, or unforgiveness, etc. Even as Christians these people fail to lead fully balanced lives
because legitimate channels of emotional expression are blocked to them. The fact that Jesus
came to heal their emotions eludes them. They miss seeing the full range of expression the
Master showed.
The shortest verse in the Bible is found when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, informs Jesus
that His friend is dead. The Bible says simply, “Jesus wept”. No man could ever be more of a
man than Jesus. He was perfect. Yet he wept with love and heartache and compassion. Many
men and women are so bound up emotionally they can’t weep for any reason. If you tell them
Jesus expressed the entire spectrum of human emotions without becoming unbalanced, they
won’t believe it. Their bottled up emotions have distorted their perception of reality.
Fortunately, when God determined that our souls should prosper, he meant our emotions as
well as our minds. I have already dealt with the changes the Word of God effects in our minds.
Emotions are much deeper, and many times are overlaid by so many wrong thoughts and
behavioral patterns that it is difficult to work with them without first having a basic
understanding of the ways that Satan tries to manipulate us through lies and fears. There are
several foundational areas I will cover here. These are not psychological tricks or tips for
emotional self-therapy. They are observations from the Bible that will help you experience a full
and godly emotional life.
Let’s start with memories, which profoundly affect our emotions. They can cause us to act
irrationally toward the present and future. Silly as it may sound, this is the premise of the Hulk
comics, TV programs and movies. Something triggers a deep instinctive response and an
apparently normal man turns into a raging monster. Add to these types of memory responses my
definition of insanity. “An insane person is one who perceives non-reality as reality, and reality
as non-reality.” You can see how deeply imbedded past hurts often drive people to look at
current events as if they were repetitions of past traumas. They therefore respond irrationally, (as
in the case of the husband who thought subconsciously that all sexual relations were evil), and
reap even more problems. All of us, even after coming to Jesus, have some of these preprogrammed reactions in our souls. The Holy Spirit helps us to eliminate them. This is spiritual
regeneration. Remember, your memories, emotions, will power, etc., have to be retrained or they
will move against your best interest. If you react in an irrational emotional manner to a situation,
it is generally because you have earlier drawn some wrong conclusion based on prior painful
experience. Many people are not prosperous because they have these strongholds of irrational
behavior in them that need to be torn down.
Take Gideon from the Book of Judges. God said to him, “The Lord is with you O Valiant
warrior.”
Gideon at that point was gripped by the emotion of fear, hiding in a wine pit to thresh his
wheat crop. His answer was irrational. “The Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of
the Midian.” Then he went on to explain how weak his family was and how weak he was. He
didn’t believe God’s testimony about him. If he had seized immediately the truth of God’s Word
he would have been freed from his irrational emotional fears right there. Do you see how
possible it is for a Christian to hear the Word of God about healing and wholeness and still cling
to wrong actions and emotions?
Now let’s look at the Apostle Peter again. If ever there was an emotional, impulsive man, it
was he. His given name, “Simon,” as we have seen, means “reed,” and it typifies how he was
blown this way and that by the winds of circumstance. When Jesus met him, He said, “You are
Peter—the rock.”
If the Master of the Universe calls someone a rock, that’s real. Peter, like Gideon, didn’t
change at once. It took him many years, perhaps because he let that impulsive, emotional nature
go unbridled for some time. Maybe like Gideon, he said, “Yeah, I heard it, but I’m not like that. I
am really like this....” Many people today do just that. They hear, but consider themselves the
unchangeable exception, so they keep on doing foolish things.
Everyone around them says, “He sure is wacky. He must be emotionally disturbed.”
Conversely, when you begin to accept what God says as true, you begin to act rationally
from God’s vantage point. After a time the world will come around to the same conclusion
because your moderation in all things will become very clear. Then people will say, “How about
that? He said he was going to prosper and he is actually doing it. I thought he was too unstable.
Something must have changed him.”
What releases the Word of God in our lives in many instances is a clearing up of what
happened in the past, and this often has to do with forgiving or asking forgiveness for a
sometimes half-forgotten incident. There are chains that bind us to bad past experience that need
to be broken so that our emotions can be made whole. Many times the problems is not a grand
traumatic event or a blatant, life-destroying sin. I have a friend named June who went into
depressions when confronted with minor setbacks like being turned down for a job application
for not being invited to a certain party. The magnitude of her reactions had nothing to do with the
minor nature of the events that triggered them. She prayed and asked Jesus to walk back with her
into her memory and to help her find the reasons for self-destructive behavior.
In her mind’s eye the Holy Spirit helped her see herself as a little girl sitting on the curb in
front of her house. She was crying hard, and she was saying, “It’s not fair! It’s not fair!
The incident came back in detail, Just minutes before she had gone crying to the street her
mother had asked her, June, “Did you open the cupboard and take the candy?”
“No.” The fact was she knew nothing about the candy or what had happened to it.
“Don’t lie to me.” Her mother insisted. “Now you’re going to get a spanking.”
“Give her two.” Her father interjected. “One for stealing the candy and one for lying.”
Now she was sitting on the curb, hurt and puzzledShe thought Mommy and Daddy were
very wise, but now they had been very, very wrong, even belligerent. Life was unfair. That
simple incident was the first link in a chain of circumstances that led her to react whenever
something happened that she considered unjust to her. It took the Holy Spirit to show her where
she had gone wrong. In her heart she forgave her parents and went onto receive a cleansing.
This sort of realm is not the sphere of an amateur phycology, but of the Word of God and
of the healing power of the Holy Spirit. Our emotional makeups are a tangled mass of threads,
and if we try to jerk on the wrong ones we can unravel a whole portion of the fabric of our lives.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, knows exactly which thread to move and where to move it
for our healing. He knows which memory to bring to our remembrance at which time so that the
past that is wrongly effecting the present will be sorted out of our lives. Our part is to train our
emotions in a godly way. Otherwise, we will continue to sow bad seeds for future bitter harvests.
A woman came to me about a series of family problems. When we were halfway through
our counseling session, she blurted out in regard to a relative. “After all he has done to me and
my family, I’ll...I’ll never forgive him.”
That was a strong statement, charged with emotion. Moreover it was a forceful act of the
will, a hard determination. As it turned out, this woman not only had the family problems she
listed, she had stomach problems, chronic headaches, and high blood pressure. The doctor said
there didn’t seem to be any cause for those conditions, but there certainly was: unforgiveness
spawning anger and bitterness that literally defiled her body. Even after I explained this, she
didn’t go away convinced that she should forgive the other party for damage done, or ask for
forgiveness herself for nuturing such rancor.
Now let’s take another case. His name is Howard, and all his life he was plagued by a
quick anger. If he perceived (often wrongly) that someone had crossed him in even the slightest
way he would flare up. Then he would blame the other person and draw away. He would get so
upset that it would take him hours to calm down. Then he found a simple verse in the Bible, “Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath (Ephesians. 4:26).”
He made a promise to God. “Father, what you are telling me to do is calm down right
away. From now on, I’m going to try to control my temper, but if I fail, I’m going to go right
over and forgive the other guy. I don’t want to be all tied up in knots inside anymore.”
Every time he got angry thereafter, he repeated the verse to himself until his emotions
quieted down. Then he would ask the Lord to forgive him for his outburst, and ask forgiveness of
the people he had offended. Many times Howard didn’t want to forgive, or to stop being angry.
He admitted he got an almost perverse satisfaction out of “making other people pay.” At those
moments, his spirit—guided by God’s Spirit—would say to his soul, “you will calm down and
you will forgive and ask forgiveness. You will not let the sun go down on your wrath. You will
control your anger right now.” He eventually came to the point where he was no longer
controlling his anger. God actually took it out of him as he practiced what the Bible said.
Howard’s angry outbursts were transformed by the Holy Spirit into the peace of God that passes
all understanding.
Another common situation is one in which a person just withdraws emotionally from others
until he is almost dead inside, or at best, very limited in his expression of trust in others. The
heart—the spiritual, living center of a man, is very unusual. You can give it to somebody, hoping
that person will reciprocate.
Maybe the person says, “How wonderful, you are sharing your heart with me.” The next
thing he takes your heart and sticks it in his back pocket and sits on it. Then he tosses the pants in
the laundry and forgets all about your heart.
You decide to extend yourself again, despite the rejection you feel. This time the other
person takes your heart throws it to the ground, and steps on it.
Another opportunity comes along. You give your heart to someone, and he accepts your
token of love and affection, but eventually he puts your heart in a drawer. The drawer gets
closed. He sells the dresser to someone, and that is the end of that sharing experience.
People go through life more and more afraid to open up, to share, to be vulnerable to love
and be loved. And this doesn’t apply just to love, it applies to many other positive emotions.
What takes their place are negative emotions like distrust or an intellectual, judgmental coldness:
What’s this person really after? He is just going to break my heart after he
Finally you discover, “God loves me and He wants me to love my neighbor.” You begin to
break down the barriers that have penned you into a low-grade lifestyle. At last, life and trust and
love begin to flow through you because of Jesus!
This picture of the heart is an accurate description of how this world system pushes us into
a mold of greatly reduced expression. That is why reaching out to others in love after all the hurt
and disappointment of our lives is quite difficult.
A young lady—Patty—came to me with a painful complainant not long ago. She had
developed a friendship with Walt. The more she got to know him the more she felt that he would
be an ideal husband. The catch was that Walt never treated in her any way except as a friend. She
asked an older friend for advice.
“Without being too forward, try to express the sentiments of your heart to him, but don’t
try to force him into something,” the friend said.
She did, and found out that while Walt valued her friendship, he had no desire to develop it
toward a marriage relationship. Patty was crushed. “Walt rejected me.” She cried. “Here I try to
love somebody... and this is what I get.”
She asked me what I thought of the situation and I replied that life involves risk taking, and
not every risk is a winner. That is part of life, part of growing up, but it does not mean rejection.
I just means that you need to redraw your plans. And one setback isn’t the end of the world. I
reminded Patty of the scripture that an open rebuke is better than secret love. “Now you know,” I
told her, “that Walt is not the man you should be looking to for a marriage relationship. Isn’t
that wonderful? God is preparing you for the man He has chosen for you. You don’t have to
wonder any more if it’s Walt. That is very positive.”
After all her worldly conditioning, she didn’t find my point of view too easy to accept, but
she could see that it was right. No one had used her, or tried to offend her, so there was no need
for her to withdraw into an emotional shell and say, “I’m not going to do that anymore. If
someone loves me, he will have to show it.”
That attitude, “The other guy will have to prove it to me,” is emotional death. Bad
experiences cause this type of reaction. Some people are hurt so badly that when a genuine
opportunity comes along they can’t respond. If they do respond, they’re so shy and mistrustful
that the situation falls to pieces and they say, “There. I knew it. I should never have allowed
myself to believe....”
Such ingrained perspective will rule a man until he allows God’s Word to enter his life. I
have mentioned this process in connection with the mind, but it bears repeating in the context of
our emotions: “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you
put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness
(Ephesians 4:22-24).” As you read the Bible, you will see that God the Father expressed
emotions, that Jesus was a very expressive and compassionate man, and that they want you to be
the same.
Speaking of risk and rejection, Jesus came to give His love to the world, and the majority
have ridiculed Him and cursed His name, yet He continues to extend them those greatest of
warm emotions with all the strength of His eternal heart. Let Him take each of your negative
emotions--wrath, anger, hatred, and all the rest—and clean them out of your life. Let His Word
be like a cleansing water that washes away the dirt and filth of the past. Then let the rejuvenating
power of His Spirit fill you with love, joy, compassion, and a full range of emotions that will fill
and enrich your life and make you a channel of blessing to yourself and all around you. They are
part of your inheritance as a prosperous son or daughter of God!
Chapter 22
“Givers are Receivers”
Any child in grammar school will tell you that if you have four bean seeds and plant two of
them, you have only two bean seeds left. This is a mathematical truth.
If I plant two of four seeds and tell you I now actually have more than four bean seeds, you
will probably say either I never learned arithmetic or I’m joking. I know my math, and I am not
joking. I have more than four bean seeds, at least if I’m talking about God’s spiritual law of
increases. Curiously, the proof is in the world around us. Suppose you have a grain of wheat.
You put it in the ground. It sprouts and grows and you end up with 100 grains. Nobody plants
one seed and expects one seed in return. That would be a waste of time. We expect more than
what we give. The principle is, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that
you use, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38).” He who would be prosperous must make
this scripture a foundational stone in the structure of his life, for it applies to every area of human
concern.
Consider good health. What I need to be healthy aside from reasonable food, exercise, and
sleep is to love and be loved. How will I get love? I will be a loving person, that is, I will give of
myself to others. It makes no difference whether what I am giving is emotional, mental, or
material. What I give, I will receive in kind, and multiplied. When the world thinks of love, it
thinks of getting, of demanding. “You should love me because I am such a nice person. On the
job it is the same. “I demand this much wages,” not, “I’m here to give my time and talent.”
What makes it difficult for people to switch to a giving mentality is the fact that they are
mistrustful of other people. “If I am a friend to this person and do kind things for him, how do I
know he won’t use me?”
“If I work well and honestly for this company how do I know they will give me a good
salary or not?” Humanly, you don’t know. Spiritually, God will make sure that as you sow you
will reap, and with increase.
This law, like all the laws of God, is so immutable that it works for sinners as well as
saints. A large number of this world’s successful people have been very selfish, but they have
understood something about God’s law of giving. They grasped that gaining their fortunes
depends on the collaboration. Therefore, they have approached other men on the basis of, “If you
will work for me, and do thus-and-thus job, I will give you the following things you want.” They
have reckoned that if they wanted highly qualified and capable help they were going to have to
give—to make attractive offers.
The failures and complainers always say, “How come I never get the breaks? Why don’t
people help? If only they would give me a chance!” They don’t understand that takers will not
succeed. Other people will withdraw support from them, repel them, consider them parasites and
leeches. Prosperity is never a win/lose situation. It is a win/win proposition. I have seed. I’m
going to plant the seed, but I need help. You are going to give me help. There will be an increase
and I will give you a portion. We both win. Success will elude you until your first question is,
“What am I going to give?”
Now let’s distinguish between “giving” and “giving away”. As Christians we should do
both, but they have different ends. Giving away is a charitable venture. It has nothing to do with
the reciprocal process that Jesus talks about in Luke 6:38. In that verse it is not God who gives us
back full measure, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing. Men do. On the other hand,
giving away implies no reciprocity. You see a need—a poor person who is sick and can’t support
his family, or a missionary raising money to continue his work—and you give. You are not
expecting anything in return. You have made a gift.
The other giving—“Give and it will be given to you” is eminently a transaction between
men. Don’t confuse it with tithing. That is an responsibility to which another, though similar, set
of rules applies. To illustrate reciprocal giving let me explain that I am one of the owners of a
firm called New Life Services Company. One day after my associates and I had been doing
business for some time, some other friends came to me and said, “We want to go into business,
maybe be a part of your company. How do we make money?”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “That is the third question. The first one is, ‘What am I going to
give in return for the money I want to make?’ Now tell me, what are your skills, what is the
service you are going to offer, and who needs it?” Second question, ‘How am I going to deliver
the product or service to people in a way that makes them want to buy it?’ Those three questions
and proper answers to them are the key to any successful business.”
Put those same three questions to any human or divine venture and you will see their
universality. Take the Gospel of our Lord Jesus:
“What do you have to give?”
“I have Good News. There’s salvation in Jesus.”
“Who needs it and how are you going to get it to them?”
“Everyone needs it and I’m going to go door to door witnessing.”
Before long people get saved, you start a church, the people tithe, and they support you.
The starting point is never, “I am a preacher, Give me money.” It is, “I have something to give,
and I am going to give it.” We don’t demand, we offer. If what we have is useful to other people
they will enter into a relationship with us. For example, take marriage. Though I would never
consider belittling the dimension of romance, it is interesting to note that in this most basic of all
human covenants the idea of reciprocity reigns. If you have ever listened to marriage vows, they
are mainly a list of all the things one party promises to do for the other if the other will consent
to live with him. In marriage, as in every other endeavor, when one of the parties fails to keep up
with his part of the contract, the relationship falls apart. On the other hand, when the giving
continues the relationship grows more and more fruitful and profound.
But that is a very lofty consideration. Let’s look at a grassroots reciprocal relationship. A
man comes to me for a job:
“What do you do?” I ask.
“I clean yards and mow lawns.”
“I need that service. What do you charge?”
“Five dollars an hour.”
“Your on.”
The man came back to me four hours later and says, “I’m done. That will be $20.00.”
“Thank you very much. Here is your money.”
I haven’t used that man. I have employed him to our mutual satisfaction. That is
reciprocity. The opposite is exploitation, which is to exhaust the man for my own purposes and
don’t give him a fair return for his time and skill. Exploitation is sinful. The Bible warns us never
to withhold from the worker his due. On the other hand the worker is expected to do what he has
been contracted to do at the prices agreed upon. Now suppose you are an employer and you hire
a machinist for $10.00 an hour. The man gets on the job and breaks two machines and destroys
several pieces he is working on. At the end of the week he comes to you and says, “You owe me
for 40 hours.”
Your reply might well be, “You own me $4,563.50, less wages, for the damages done.”
A lot of workers would be shocked if they heard the boss make such a statement because
they have no reciprocal mentality. The are not thinking at all about giving. They are thinking
about what they are going to get, what they think they’re entitled to. As for any damage, that is
the owner’s loss, or the insurance company will cover it. I can tell you that all wages are based
on production and that it can’t be any other way. In every human relationship love, acceptance,
compassion, consideration, friendship, every good quality are based—as it were-on--production.
Again, if you want to be loved, be a loving person. In the job world if you want to be well paid,
be a good worker. Nobody wants to give to a non-producer; that is like throwing money away
(please note that I am not talking here about people who can’t work for some reason, such as
someone who is bedridden). If I pound nails into a plank for eight hours, and at the end of the
day say, “I’m exhausted. I worked hard today. Somebody ought to pay me,” I’m only fooling
myself. People rightly should not pay me for my time but for my production.
This hold true in the home also. I have heard women say, “I’m married. My husband
should support me.”
“Why?” I ask. “Are you giving to him? Are you upholding your part of the relationship by
being a diligent housewife? If so, your husband should do his part.”
Wherever giving is reciprocal, there is ever increasing trust, love, peace, and wealth. If you
practice reciprocity, people will gather around you because you extend yourself to them. They
will feel secure, wanted, and served. In your way you will have helped them to prosper and they
will want to help you. So give. It’s God’s way.
SECTION 3
Practical Steps to Prosperity
CHAPTER 23
Take Risks, Not Chances
There is a great difference between taking a risk and taking a chance.
Taking a chance is like this: You are driving a subcompact car behind a semi-trailer that is
grinding around a steep uphill blind curve. On your left is a sheer drop-off. You pull out to pass.
You hope nobody’s coming down that hill, especially someone testing the speed and handling
ability of his new Lamborghini. Chance-taking is foolishness.
Risk-taking is different. You are a farmer. You have plowed your fields in early spring during
a dry spell. Now it has rained again, and the fields are ideal for sowing. If you get your early
sweet corn crop in now you will beat the market and get a premium price, but only if more rain
comes. The long range weather forecast indicates some possibility of showers. You decide to
take a risk.
In chance taking, there is nothing to calculate. The factors are entirely beyond your knowledge.
In risk taking, you analyze all the factors and if the possibilities for success outweigh those for
failure, you may very well--but not always—decide to go ahead with your plan.
As with everything else of transcendental importance, the Bible gives us some important
guidelines and examples. In Luke 14:31-32 we find, “Or what king, going to make war against
another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet
him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way
off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.” This is a simple illustration of risk
taking. The king is faced with a decision. He gathers people who can help him analyze the
situation, then he acts. If a victory seems possible, he may risk an attack. If not, he will make
whatever arrangements are necessary to ensure the safety of his people. At every turn in life
there are risks to be assumed, and when they are properly calculated they can offer great rewards.
Insurance companies base their policies on this premise.
With that in mind, let’s consider love, because as we have seen this is an area we generally
consider highly risky. When Jesus comes into your heart he imparts his divine love to you. In a
sense, you risk your entire life of the fact that he is who he says he is, and that he loves you and
wants the best for you. The Holy Spirit helps you experience the reality of this love, and enables
you to reach out and share it. At this point you become vulnerable, because the love of God
means serving and seeking the best for others. It is truly selfless.
Yet, the people you offer this love to could reject you or worse, turn on you and hate you. But
if you’re going to love like Jesus loved, you are going to have to be vulnerable to what he
experienced. He came to the Jews--his own people who knew about him through prophecy--and
they rejected him. Not only that, they called for his death, staged a mock trial with false
witnesses, and killed him on a cross. His apostles—his most intimate friends—abandoned him in
his moment of need. It seems from the bible account that he heard Peter curse and swear that he
never had met the Lord. Nevertheless, when the suffering was over and he was in the power of
his resurrection, he could sit down to eat with Peter and ask him, “Peter, do you love me?” Jesus
took a risk with Peter, and turned him into a great servant and lover of mankind. If you are
willing to take risks, that same transformation power will work through you to change lives too.
Another example of risk taking from the Bible is Gideon. When God told him he was going to
be the liberator of Israel, he didn’t believe it. But he took a risk. He went out one night and
destroyed an altar to false gods. His neighbors wanted to kill him but then something remarkable
happened. Gideon’s father sprung to his defense and turned away the assailants. Could it be that
his son’s risk had inspired him to risk his life for Israel’s cause also? Later God helped Gideon to
take progressively higher risks (I speak from a human point of view. From the divine perspective
there was not risk.) At last with 300 men he took on the Midianite army and 120,000 enemies
died.
Going back to Peter, on one occasion he, and his partners had been out fishing all night
without success. Then Jesus came up to them and said, “Cast your nets into the water.”
You have to understand that Peter and his associates were fishermen. They knew the water and
the weather. When the fish weren’t around there was no sense continuing. Jesus was the son of a
carpenter and didn’t necessarily know anything about fishing. It would definitely be a risk for
Peter to lower the nets with a great crowd of people watching, ready to laugh at him for doing a
lot of work for nothing. Peter probably felt ridiculous. He was sure they wouldn’t catch anything,
but he decided to do it because Jesus had asked him. The end of the story? They caught so many
fish they had to call for help. Besides, in the middle of taking that risk something happened in
Peter’s heart. He confessed before Jesus that he was sinner, and then—at the Lord’s biding—he
left his boat and nets and became a fisher of men. We should all take risks like that!
In future chapters, as I discuss the qualities you need to cultivate to achieve success, I’ll refer
again to risk taking so you can see how to put this important principle into action in your daily
affairs. For now, the point to remember is that risks are a part of life. They are to be considered
carefully and acted upon when that seems best. If your heart is to serve God, He will make sure
that all works out for the best.
CHAPTER 24
”You’ve Got to Serve Somebody....”
A man walked into my office some years ago and said “Mr. Durkin, I want you to hire me.”
I thought, that’s a straightforward presentation, so I asked this young man, “What can you
do?”
He didn’t answer me directly. “I have great potential.”
“Wonderful.” I replied, “But what do you do with this potential?”
“Listen,” he said, “everyone tells me I have great potential. Your business could use a man
with potential, don’t you think.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t pay for potential, I pay for work. Now if you tell me what you can do
maybe I can give you a job.”
Unfortunately the man couldn’t give me a clear answer about what he could do for me. He
only offered me great potential. I couldn’t give him a job because he didn’t offer me any tangible
service.
Service. That is the key. Unless you are willing to serve others, you will not be prosperous.
You probably won’t have many friends and you will certainly find it difficult to hold down a job.
The rule is “Give and it will be given unto you.” You could state that, “Serve others and they
will serve you.” Jesus is the greatest example of service. He gave himself that we might have
life. Time after time he demonstrated his serving nature. When he was tired and hungry and
pressed upon from all sides he continued to heal all who came to him. He told his apostles that
whoever wanted to be greatest among them would have to be the servant of all and he went so
far as to wash their feet to show them just how serious a commitment service is. Let his life be
an example to you. Don’t get the opposite attitude, “you ought to be helping me because I‘m the
guy who knows what’s happening. I’m the man with the plan.” If you see the people around you
as stepping stones on your way to success, you will find out very quickly that most people can’t
or won’t take it. They will feel used and exploited, and eventually leave you. Occasionally you
will find a person who is fairly successful but who has a “Public be damned” attitude and seems
to not care about the people he works with. But I tell you that in some way that man has really
learned at least a little about service. He gives his employees something in return for their help—
perhaps it is a very high salary that makes working for him bearable or he offers business
connections or some other perk that attracts associates. As for the public, he might not esteem his
customers at all but he knows if he wants his business to continue he has to provide a service or
product they are willing to pay for.
In fact, the most successful businesses are generally those which are geared to meet the
public’s perceived needs. Henry Ford had the idea, “What’s good for the people is good for me,”
not, “What’s good for me is good for the people”. There is a grand difference between these two
concepts. The first led Ford to develop a way for the average man to have his own means of
transportation at low initial and low maintenance costs. He devised standardized parts, the
assembly line, and the first production Fords. People saw it was good for them, and they bought
Fords by the thousands. What was good for them was good for Ford’s pocketbook too. The
Volkswagen, or “people’s car,” is another example of the same desire to provide the general
populace with efficient, inexpensive transportation that resulted in a global industry. Consider
also recent campaigns by two of the most successful fast food chains. Their ads were based on
getting the public to perceive that they were meeting a vital need. For instance, a McDonald’s
slogan ran, “We do it all for you,” while Burger King countered with, “We’re here to do it your
way.”
The common denominator is the principle of service. Most examples of service in the world
are based on, “I’m going to serve you to get something.” This is a reasonable concept and it is
the way employees relate to employers, and businessmen relate to customers and vice versa.
However, there is a step beyond—one that reflects Jesus’ teachings: “You know that the rulers of
the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it
shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your
servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 28 just as the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mat
20:25-28).”
The idea of serving with the intention of receiving—the reciprocal relationship between two or
more people--works fine for business transactions. The system that Jesus mentioned in which the
gentiles served their rulers works until the people tire of the oppression of their leaders and rebel.
But neither of these attitudes will function, for example, in the home. Successful marriage is not
predicated on, “I’m going to render you this and this service, so you have to give back to me that
and that.” Much less is it built on machoism patterns like, “Listen, woman. I’m the boss around
here and your job is to make sure I get what I want, understand?”
True Christian service is based on unselfish giving. You don’t say to yourself, “I have to give
to get. That is the way is has got to be done. If I don’t do it that way, I am not going to make any
money.” Rather you see that you can render a service to someone—whether it be business,
friendship, or marriage—out of an honest heart of caring for others. This is a shift from thinking
that people are only ultimately useful to serve you.
The godly man looking for a job does not start out, “What are you going to pay me?” He says,
“This is the service I can offer you.” His concern is not the paycheck (though that is important),
it is filling a need the other person has. This is a Christ-like attitude. The one who sees his job
and his relationship with other people and with his family as a Christ-like opportunity to meet
their needs is a man who is on the way to prosperity. In a sense he sees his working with other
people from the point of view of a partnership. He knows that as he creates a secure, trusting
environment for other people, one in which they feel that they and their interests are genuinely
cared for, they will respond in kind to him. As a matter of fact, partnership is the only
relationship that can ever endure. If you consider your wife (or husband) as subordinate to you,
or your children as a bother, they eventually will treat you the same way. If you consider your
co-workers as something less than you because they don’t have the same education, expertise, or
creative capacity, they will not give you their loyalty and friendship. On the other hand, if that
partnership mentally works in you, “We’re in this together. I want you to greatly benefit from
our mutual relationship,” blessings will flow back to you.
Proverbs 11:24 says, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who
withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty.” As you serve others, you are actually
scattering goodwill, trust, confidence, love and other wonderful qualities. They can’t be
measured in dollars and cents but they are as necessary to other people’s mental and emotional
health as food is to their bodies. They will repay you abundantly, not only in reciprocal service
but in this security, love, acceptance and cooperation you need for your personal well-being. If
your attitude is to withhold from others, or you have a “Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie” attitude that
telegraphs, “The world owes me a living,” you will find yourself in poverty.
Because of the way that the world has tried to shove us into its “gimmie” mold, it is very
difficult to develop a Christ-like attitude toward serving. Nonetheless, I have discovered a
workable program whereby you can make serving from a pure heart a reality in your life. A short
time ago I was talking to a friend, George. We’ve been associates in the Gospel Outreach
Ministry for the last 12 years. I said to him, “Let me ask you a personal question. How do you
think I view you?”
George hardly had to think about an answer. Over the years we have developed a rapport. “I’d
say we were good friends”
“That’s right,” I replied. “But you know how else I consider you? I think you are better than
me.”
“Better?” George was a little startled because I am the director of the ministry. He thought I
would naturally consider myself better—better equipped for the job, more experienced, better
known in the church world and in a better financial position.
“That’s right, George. I consider you better than me. I don’t know how that has happened but I
know I am your servant and that the Holy Spirit has allowed me to see things that way.
He was silent for a few minutes. The he said: “Well, The Bible says we should esteem others
more highly than ourselves.”
This is the key. When I see others as better than me, when I prefer to honor them than to seek
honor, I find it very easy to take the servant’s position. It is when we’re proud and puffed up
with our own self-importance that we find it difficult to serve other people. But if we develop the
habit of telling ourselves deep truths like, “Jesus didn’t think it a great degradation to leave the
glory of heaven to come to the earth as a man and die on the cross as my sin bearer. Why should
I consider it degrading or belittling to use my life to serve others also? It is a blessing to esteem
others more highly than myself.”
It really is! You are no long involved in vicious competition or in comparing yourself with
others. You are just a servant and everyone appreciates servants. To make more clear this idea of
esteeming others more than yourself as a basis for developing a heart of service, let’s take an
example from the business world. I mentioned the New Life Service Company in a previous
chapter. I started this business as a vehicle for helping friends get on their way to financial
stability and freedom and for serving the public in a truly Christian way. The business is a
success because I spend more time thinking about how I can benefit my co-workers and
customers than about benefiting myself.
You may ask, “What does this mean?”
My reply is “I am not thinking about how to get more money out of people, but how I can do a
better job. There is a certain price I have to charge to make reasonable profit on the jobs I do. My
competitors (to use the business term) are mainly in the same price range. Why do people come
to me rather than to them? They know I will do a good job, and if it is not satisfactory to them, I
will redo it. They know I am dependable, courteous, honest, and fair. In short, when they do
business with me they benefit not only in the work but in those intangibles like trust and
goodwill. My customers sense that I esteem them more highly than myself. After all, they are
employing me, doing me the favor of giving me work, the sense that I want to serve them, and
they actually get involved in helping me prosper because the realize I want them to prosper also.
What could be a better way to operate a business? It is putting into practice the wisdom you
sometimes see on a plaque hanging in a business manager’s office. “The customer is the boss.”
Where that is true—within reason—prosperity abounds.
You could say this idea of esteeming others is plain old fashioned courtesy. All of the
gestures that in other generations were called “courtesy” are at bottom expressions of service and
esteem. Offering a seat to a woman on a bus is an example, or standing up and greeting someone
who enters a room, or opening the car door for another person, preceding a woman down a flight
of stairs and following her up (protection in case she should fall). All these almost-forgotten acts
really are significant. They say to the other person, “You are important to me. I want you to feel
content and secure.”
I think the disappearance of the habits of courtesy that used to cause our lives to flow smoothly
in the same way that oil makes machinery function efficiently is because over the years people
developed a mechanical attitude toward courtesy. At the same time there was a shift in Western
mentalities from service to self-centeredness. People began to say, “This stuff about courtesy is
foolishness. If men and women are equal, why should a man help a woman sit down at a
restaurant table? It is all hypocrisy.”
Equality is not the question. The selfish person says, “I am as good as you. What you deserve,
I deserve (and maybe a little more).” Hypocrisy is not an issue. The hypocrite schemes, “I’ll do
this so people will think I am a good person. Really I have ulterior motives” The prosperous
man’s attitude is “I value my family, my friends, and my associates. I want them to feel loved
and comfortable. They deserve the best from me.”
Treating other people in a consistently courteous way and showing them a heart of service
and love is a tremendously powerful way to build bridges of peace and unity. Almost everyone
responds very positively to those who manifest these qualities. As you look to serve others you
will find that they will want to cooperate with you. You will experience less and less strained
relationships and serious confrontations. Plus you will take on the heart of Jesus, who in serving
all mankind became the most highly exalted. Those who follow His footsteps have the promise
that they too will sit with Him on His throne—the reward of selfless service.
CHAPTER 25
Long Term Perspective
Frank Betcher, author of “How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success,’ tells about a time he
visited a prospective insurance client with a seasoned salesman. Betcher had not had much
success in the field but on this occasion he did manage to close the sale. There was just one
problem. The insurance policy the custom agreed to buy wasn’t exactly the same one he though
he had purchased.
Betcher told his colleague privately. “This contract is slightly altered from the one our
customer thinks he is buying but he’ll never know the difference.”
“He certainly will, “countered the other, “I am going to tell him.”
“What? He might not buy it. The way it is there is hardly any difference between the two. He
will never know.”
The other salesman said something to Betcher that helped change him from a loser to a great
salesman. “Frank, you are right. Our customer probably will never know the difference. But I
know, and you know that deceit will ruin us.”
What was the something in the incident that so changed Betcher? It was coming to grips with
the reality of the long term perspective. By telling the customer about the alterations in the
contract, he stood to lose the sale. That is why he didn’t want to say anything. This is a short
term perspective. Accepting the long term perspective meant he might lose the immediate profit
from the sale but he would establish himself as a man of integrity. And that is how Betcher
became a great salesman. He realized that integrity was more important than immediate gain.
The man known for honesty and integrity is looked upon by others as trustworthy. They will give
him repeat business, and refer their friends and associates to him. There is no shortcut to
success, just steady moving forward with perseverance and integrity over man years.
Before I proceed further, I want to make clear that I am not against short range moves. Often
you need to make immediate response to situations, but you should always make them in the
context of your overall plan. For instance, had Frank Betcher developed the understanding that
successful salesmen are not the result of a series of isolated sales but of a concerted effort over a
long period of service and integrity, he wouldn’t have been tempted to deceive his customers.
Suppose he had said nothing and his client later discovered that the contract wasn’t as presented.
Do you think he would do business with Betcher again or tell his friends what a fine fellow this
salesman was? Hardly! The wise short-range move was what the other salesman indicated—tell
the client the truth because it fits in perfectly with the long range objective of repeat sales and
referrals.
Unfortunately, the bulk of mankind careen from one short term move to another with no idea
of what they want to accomplish over a lifetime. Their response is to whatever is screaming
loudest that the moment—the sort of stuff that makes up the bread and butter of the TV sitcom.
You know the plot: Wife takes the money she was supposed to use to pay the past due payments
on the car and buys an expensive dress. She plans to cover the bill with money she expects to
make giving piano lessons, only all her students quit. Then the finance company repossess the
car. Instead of confessing to her husband she asks the next door neighbor to help her get the car
back. The neighbor uses the money her husband has given her to buy house paint, brushes and an
extension ladder.
Meanwhile hubby number one has lost a bundle in a lunch hour poker
game and he needs some fast cash to make his wife think he is coming home with the weekly
paycheck. He asks the next door neighbor for help. The neighbor, in turn, asks his wife to give
him the house paint money because he says he has changed his mind and wants to use is as a
down payment on a Caribbean cruise. In the middle of all this the finance company calls to say
that the car can be picked up at the dealership once the payments are brought up to date. The
husband demands to know what happened to the car. Of course, the whole story revolves around
a series of “White lies” and short term solutions that further complicate matters until the grand
denouncement when everyone finds out everything, and they all kiss and make up until next
week’s installment. There is no understanding, no integrity, no long-term perspective, no real
truthfulness. So what makes such programs so popular? I think people identify with them to a
certain degree. The programs are their own short term-reactions parodied, perhaps even
legitimated or normalized.
What a difference from the Bible’s teaching! Look at Proverbs 20:7, “The righteous man
walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.” This is long range. This man is not
involved in shenanigans. His viewpoint is so far-reaching that he sets an example for his whole
family and his influence spans generations. He is not trying to recover his losses in a poker game
with some short-term trick. He sees that the overall aim of his life is to glorify God, and every
short-term decision he makes—no matter what the pressures, circumstances or immediate
advantages—will be made on the basis of how it fits into the overall projection. Unlike the
sitcom characters who make bad decisions then continue making others based on that original
bad move in an effort to cover up, the man of integrity does not compound the situation when he
makes a wrong move. He backtracks as far as necessary to get on the right path.
That is what Frank Betcher had to do to get on the road to success. He told the client about that
slightly altered contract. He went back to the place where he had left the path of integrity and
straightened out the situation. He did not let his life turn into a series of sitcom cover-ups (which,
by the way, in real life are tragic, not funny).
The essence of the long term perspective is the ability to detach yourself from present
circumstance and to get an overview. Do you recall when you were a youngster, that if some
special friend did not come to your birthday party or send you a card or present it was a
devastating event? It was as if you had not a friend in the world. Life lost its flavor, and you
didn’t want to do anything but mope around the house. Today you look back on such times with
a chuckle. What was the big deal? Well, it is the same way with the stock market, with buying a
house on a mortgage, with establishing a marriage. Recently a friend of mine, Hector, came to a
decision about his job. He was head mechanic at an auto dealership. He was very conscientious
about his work and about the quality of work of the men under him. One day the owner told him
to make “repairs” on certain cars that really did not need to be made and to overcharge on other
jobs.
Hector knew with a bit of mental gymnastics he could more or less justify what the boss was
asking. He also knew because of family and financial obligations he would face difficult times if
he were fired. He had a relatively high-paying job in a rather tight job market. In short, his boss
“had him over a barrel.” But Hector understood something. He looked down the corridors of
time and compared the short term gains of his job with the eternal promises God makes to the
upright and trustworthy. He told his boss, “I’ll repair the cars the way I know they should be
repaired, and I’ll charge the prices that are correct for the work done and the parts used. No
more, no less.”
“Then clear out,” the boss retorted.
For about a month Hector looked for a job. His economic outlook grew bleaker, but eventually
one of the men in his church suggested he learn vinyl repair. There was no one doing that kind of
work in his city. It so happened that some of the members of a sister congregation in Chicago
were not only expert vinyl repairmen but also distributors of repair products. They gave Hector
such solid on-the-job training that after a month in Chicago he was able to set up his own
business. Within a few more months he was making more money with his vinyl repair business
than he formerly received as head mechanic for a dishonest dealer. Doing it God’s way
sometimes results in a temporary inconvenience, but the long term results are always fruitful.
That is because in the divine economy there is no law of decrease. Decrease is the result of sin,
of the curse upon the earth. God’s law is long range increase, and everywhere the Bible speaks of
it. The wise man lays up for his children’ children. That is increase. The virtuous woman smiles
at the future. She is prepared for the long haul. Hector decided to do it God’s way. He believed
that in the long run God would prosper him. That is exactly the way it’s working out for him.
Had he been a different kind of person—a man without a long term viewpoint—he might have
gotten angry with God over losing that job.
I have heard many people complain, “Why does everything have to happen to me? How come
I’m always the guy who gets the pie in the face?” What such people are asserting is that God is
not wise in allowing trials and tribulations to come into their lives. They are actually saying their
assessment of the circumstance is better than God’s. Instead of thanking their Heavenly Father
for the eternal changes he is working in their lives, they begin contending with him. The truth is
what Romans 8:28 says, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Trials and tests are actually God’
way of working long term perseverance into over lives so that we become more like Jesus.
Giving into temptation is a short sighted response to life. For example the Scripture says: “By
faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of
sin (Hebrews 11:24-25).” Moses had a long range objective. He wanted to free the Israelites
from slavery in Egypt. He had to choose a drawn-out battle with the Egyptians or keep on with
his normal lifestyle hoping that God would work an easy miracle through him one day.
Make no mistake about it. There is short term pleasure in sin, but the man who resists
temptations is seeing beyond immediate gratification to the outworking of God’s will in his life.
Moses endured 40 years in the desert because he had a vision of his nation free and firmly
established in the Promised Land. By way of contrast, King David, when he looked down from
his palace roof and saw Bathsheba bathing, forgot about the long range consequences. He wanted
quick sensual fulfillment, but instead of a happy sitcom ending, his adultery led to murder,
dishonor, and to the death of the baby born of that illicit union. The question should never be,
“What can I get out of this now,” but, “How will this affect my overall direction?”
This is almost alien thinking in the Western world. Modern man is used to instant coffee,
instant food, instant replays on the television, and instant money at the automatic bank teller. He
wants what he wants now, and he hopes he will be able to come up with the money, or least, the
minimum credit payment, before the bills are due. If you are going to break out of that mold,
there will have to be fundamental changes in your life that includes at least two elements. First is
the ability to think long range. This chapter (coupled with the rest of this book’s content) is
designed to help you see the necessity of that thinking. Second is the practice of long range
goals.
As an example, let’s look at the family budget. Most people simply spend what comes in. They
might be paying on a house, which they consider “savings,” but most of the money beyond that
goes to living expenses and unexpected expenditures. To get into a long term mind set, they
would have to deliberately arrange their standard of living to lay aside 10 percent of their income
as a tithe to God. Next, they would earmark a portion for investments. After all they can’t lay up
for their children’s children unless they have actually invested for that purpose (in later chapters
I’ll explain the fundamentals of both good budget planning and sound investment principles).
Let’s call our hypothetical couple Fred and Joyce. He makes $2,500 a month and he spends it
all. $600 goes immediately to the house payments. The rest goes for car payments, appliances,
clothes, the children’s schooling, food, entertainment, utility bills, church tithes and offerings,
etc. Now Fred decides to begin a long range program that will do two things—assure him
financial stability in his old age and provide an inheritance for his children. He realizes that in
his old age if he has laid up property for the youngsters he will obviously have enough for
himself. Before making this long range decision he had a somewhat vague idea that social
security would be the financial backbone of his old age and that his children (as is the case in
many countries in the world today) would be obligated to support him in case there was need.
Now he knows that both ideas are not necessarily the most sound. He tells his wife, “Honey,
from now on we are putting 10 percent of our income right into the bank. It is not to be spent. It
is to be used for investment.”
“Great.” It has not dawned on her yet that that means $250 less to spend each month.
The adjustments are rather severe the first few months. Joyce suddenly finds she does not have
enough money to buy all the bargains that come up for sale. Fred, who has been used to
rewarding himself with a little present every paycheck, finds out there is no money left over for
the new fishing pole he wants, or for the new stereo speakers, or for the silk tie to go with his
brown suit. But they go along with the new arrangement until eight months later when it is
vacation time. “Honey,” Fred says. “You know I have been thinking we need to get away for
awhile, maybe go on one of those cruise ships.”
“Sounds wonderful, but where do we get the money?”
“We have $2,000 saved up. That’s more than enough to cover this two-week cruise to Cancun
that I was looking at.”
Joyce hesitates for a few moments. “Isn’t that the investment money you are talking about?”
“We wouldn’t spend it all, just borrow a portion of it. I think we really need a vacation.”
“You’re right about that. My folks could watch the kids. I feel like I need to get away or I’ll go
bananas.”
Fred and Joyce end up with a very short term gratification--$ 1,598 worth of fun on the cruise
ship. Their long term goal has faded into the background, and all they have to show for the short
term are a few photos of themselves with fellow passengers they will probably never see again.
Happily, they see the error and start over. This time they understand there is going to be
privation in the beginning. Next year’s vacation might not be anything more than a visit to the
local historical society and a long rest in the backyard. Their rewards for hard work are no longer
new clothes and fishing rods but something within them—the sure knowledge that they are
moving constantly toward financial prosperity. Their new practices will leave them in a far richer
position than if they had nickled and dimed their way through a lifetime of small purchases.
What is implicit in this kind of long term planning is a set of four principles that I have used to
guide every area of my life:
I can’t do everything I want to do or that other people want me to do.
I can’t have everything I want to have.
I can’t go everywhere I want to go.
Therefore, I will choose what best fulfills God’s purpose for my life on the basis of long
term results.
This sounds like a perfectly reasonable set of assumptions, yet many Christians ignore one or
another of the first three, and somehow have the idea that they’re going to glorify God in the end.
Not so. Every now and then I receive appeal letters from ministers’ rest homes. The brochure
usually shows a man, usually slightly bowed by the weight of age, sitting with a puzzled and
frightened expression on his face, looking out into space as if to say, “What horrors are yet out
there for me?” The caption generally says something like, “He served you when you needed him.
Now can you serve him?” The sad part is that that minister-barring some disaster like
persecution or calamity on the mission field—should have been laying up for his children’s
children in accordance with the Bible’s teaching and he should have been teaching his
congregation to do likewise. I tell you that a man’s old age, if he has built his life around the
whole counsel of the Scriptures, will not be uncertain and horrible, but a rewarding and useful
transition toward eternity.
1.
2.
3.
4.
What has happened is that an anti-biblical concept of old age has deflected men’s minds from
the truth. Today’s egocentric viewpoint is built around a series of lies. Most men are not building
for the future. The have been tricked into building for retirement, some cutoff point in their
productivity where they will have the right to withdraw from responsibility. I talked about this
phenomenon in the chapter on fears, but it bears amplification as we explore long range issues. If
your goal is retirement, you are just thinking about a supposedly non-productive period in your
life. If your retirement is based on social security, it is for sure you won’t be doing all the
wonderful things you are planning for those “golden years.” The system is not that generous.
Inflation and the rise in the cost of living have a way of doing in what little savings people on
fixed income have, and they end up anything but prosperous in their old age.
Instead of receiving an inheritance, their children end up paying part of their nursing home
bills. This is hardly God’s law of increase. In fact the trend toward providing nothing for the
children has gone so far that in the United States a practice called reverse financing is going on.
Let’s say I have a house that is worth $200,000. I go down to the finance company and say,
“According to the insurance company statistics, I have 15 more years to live. I want to sell you
the house, receive monthly payments with interest and at the end of 15 years the house is yours.
The concept behind reverse financing is, “Why should I leave anything for the kids. I fed
them, housed them, clothed them, sent them to school. It cost me a lot of money. Now let them
take care of themselves. I am going to get some money out of the house and enjoy myself.”
This is not abundance. It is penury. It is not building. It is self-preservation and selfgratification at best. It is not long term vision that reaches across to coming generations with
good examples of godly conduct and of material prosperity. It is myopia that teaches selfishness
and dissipates wealth. True long range planning requires integrity. It requires an act of the will
that dedicates itself to fulfilling God’s purpose and not personal ambitions. It requires a selfless
attitude that accepts and practices storing up for one’s grandchildren. It means thinking
“abundance,” not “survival,” which is selfishness. If these qualities are engraved in your mind
and acted on, you will be internally prosperous. If you are internally prosperous and practice
God’s will for your life, you will be externally prosperous. If you are building for far beyond
your lifetime, poverty will not overcome you in this one. You will go on blessing those around
you until the Lord calls you to His side, and when you leave this earth it will be with joy and
sweet anticipation of the next phase of your eternal life. This is the long term perspective. Work
for it!
CHAPTER 26
The Importance of Covenant
The famous English clergyman-poet John Donne observed that, “No man is an island, entirely
of himself.” This is a good reminder in our current age of selfishness that no matter how much of
a rugged individualist a man may fancy himself, he is still dependent on other people one way or
another. This is especially true in the case of the man who wants to be prosperous in the context
of 3 John 2. The message of Christianity depends on human outreach and interaction. It depends
on recognizing relationship on every level of society, from our vertical relationship with God, to
our horizontal relationship with our Christian brothers and sisters and with society at large. Most
importantly it depends on maintaining those relationships in integrity and love over the course of
a lifetime.
Some of these relationships are rather causal in nature. My agreement with the newspaper boy
is that he brings me the paper every evening and at the end of the month I pay him. This is a
very simple arrangement, but it depends on each of us keeping our word. Other relationships are
very formal, legally sanctioned contracts. Marriage is such an example. The man and woman
stand before a minister or other authority recognized by the government and they say something
like, “I vow to love you, honor you, cherish you…and so on...all the days of my life, for richer or
for poorer, in sickness and in health.... until death do us part.” What this couple is doing is
making a set of covenant promises stipulating the future course of their marital life. They hope
there won’t be any sickness or poverty or bad times but most likely there’ll be some difficulties
during their marriage. What they are agreeing to beforehand is that they will assume the risk of
problems and setbacks and maintain their union in spite of them. Marriage partners who truly
believe the covenant words of their spouses can safely trust their future in their mate’s hands.
They are free to grow within the security of the other’s loving faithfulness.
Whatever the nature of the covenant (unless it’s based on some sinful activity and like the
Mafia’s code of secrecy and brotherhood) the power of the Almighty God is behind it. Why?
Because without covenant (or contract, pact, truce, treaty, accord, agreement, or whatever other
term is appropriate) both personal and social interchanges break down completely and anarchy
reigns. In the very beginning in the Garden of Eden God established covenant with Adam. Later,
as reported in Genesis 6:18, He made a formal covenant with Noah to save him from the flood
that was to come. Throughout the Bible God made covenants with individuals and with nations
because in His wisdom He knew that human beings needed both reference points for their
activities and constraints on their sinful natures.
God Himself provides the standards of loyalty, integrity and faithfulness that are the
underpinnings of every covenantal relationship. He also provides the basic format for every
social compact. In return for Noah’s obedience, He promised to save him. In return for the
Israelites’ adherence to the Mosaic Law, God promised to bless the Chosen People. In return for
King David’s and his progeny’s personal faithfulness and adoration to Him, he promised to
uphold the Davidic dynasty forever. In return for our commitment to Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior, he promises to adopt us as sons and give us eternal life. Jehovah is a covenant
making God, a covenant-keeping God, a covenant-preserving God. He is very interested that we
follow His example and remain true to the words of commitment we have made. He knows we
can’t exist as families, nations or the church without covenants.
If this seems far-fetched, consider something as everyday common as the use of paper money.
It is not gold or silver or any other precious article that makes the dollar valuable as a medium of
exchange. The United Sates and most other countries have long since given up backing their
currencies with precious metals. What maintains the value of the dollar is essentially your faith
in the word of the American government that a dollar represents a given quantity of goods or
services. Where did the government get the authority to make these promises? From the
Constitution. The Preamble states, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union...” What do we have here but a social contract? A group of men bonded together,
formed a nation and then defined the nature of their agreement to live and work together. The
Constitution is the basic covenantal document of the United States and it delineates the
fundamental obligations of both the governors and the governed, including the issuing of money.
Without a constitution the nation would be a free-for-all society— a situation like an ongoing
version of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution (which is a good example of what
happens when men turn into covenant breakers). Getting back to the money—suppose you go
into a store one day and offer the owner a $50 bill for a pair of shoes.
“Sorry, pal,” the store owner says, “I don’t accept dollars. If you want shoes, you can buy them
with gold or silver.”
“What do you mean” you protest. “It says right here on the bill, ‘legal tender for all debts,
public and private.’”
“I don’t care what it says. That bill isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Don’t you know the
government just rolls those bills off the press, causes inflation and then plans to pay back its
debts with cheap, inflated bills?”
You would probably leave the store thinking the owner was some kind of eccentric crank and
look for a store that accepted your dollars. But what if no one did? Or what if a businessman
wanted not $50 but either two ounces of silver or $150? Everything hinges on the people’s
perception of how the government is maintaining its part of the covenant. If the discontent level
rises too high, there is revolution, as when the American colonies separated from England. If it
stays at a nuisance level, the currency loses value against the currency of other nations. For
example between 1979 and 1984, the Nicaraguan Cordoba dropped from eight to the dollar to
over 200 to the dollar while the official rate was set at 28. The drop was a reflection of the
public’s lack of confidence in government policies. Similar problems have sprung up in Mexico,
Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Poland, to name just a few. The lesson is that when one
party to a covenant thinks the other part is not keeping his part of the bargain, the relationship
begins to deteriorate. The result can be anything from canceling the newspaper home delivery to
divorcing the spouse to starting a guerrilla war.
Let me repeat, every meaningful relationship in life is predicated on making and maintaining a
covenant. Interestingly enough, whole professions have sprung up around this fact. Judges and
criminal lawyers deal with people who have broken social contracts. Other lawyers deal with
people who have trouble with business or civil contracts. Even though people recognize the
necessity of contracts and agreements, they are continually breaking them for selfish motives. In
fact, one of the signs of the End Times is that men will become increasingly more brazen
covenant breakers. I believe this is happening now. The divorce rate is a good indicator. So is the
inordinate rise in damage suits based on broken contracts (or promises).
A few years back a popular retort to complaints was, “So get a lawyer and sue me.” This kind
of degenerate, worldly thinking must be eliminated entirely from your mind. Instead, seek to
form a covenant on whatever level possible with as many people as possible with whom you
come into regular contact. Above all, see your family and your friends as the chief beneficiaries
of your desire to be a covenant man or woman. This is where God’s blessing is. Psalm 133 says,
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity...for there the
Lord commanded blessing—life forever.” Unity can only come from covenant, from accord.
As Christians, we recognize other believers as our brothers, but naturally we can’t form close
relationships with all of them. We must work first on the family level in our respective roles as
spouses, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. Then we must reach out to
those close to us in the faith. I once preached a sermon on the need for all of us to be friends.
Sometimes brothers or husbands and wives aren’t friends. They just live together. The point that
we all need friends was so forceful that after the sermon one of the men in the church—
Holden—talked to another with whom he had a very close working relationship.
Holden felt that though they interacted on a daily basis, he and Derrick hadn’t developed a
friendship. So he offered, “I want to be your friend. Let’s be buddies.”
Derrick carefully considered this proposal for quite some time and finally drawled, “You
know, getting to be friends sometimes takes years.”
Holden was crushed. He had expected an enthusiastic affirmative but instead received what he
thought to be a rebuff. Derrick actually had no intention of rejecting his brother in Christ. He
understood that friendship means accepting an implied or spoken set of promises that were not to
be broken or changed unilaterally. He wanted to make sure they were both willing to enter into a
serious commitment of mutual support and love. A person should not say—like little children
sometimes do—I’m mad at you. I’m not your friend anymore” anymore than he should say to his
wife, “I’ve had enough of you I’m getting a divorce.” Yet people do just that; they lightly esteem
relationships.
On the other hand, I have a friend who was brought up to call certain friends of his parents,
“Aunt and Uncle.” Not only that, the relatives of these “aunts and uncles” became like extra
grandparents and aunts and uncles, and their children, “cousins.” The friendships of the parents’
generation were transferred to the children, and now a third generation is growing up with the
same continuity of covenant friendship. This is the kind of long term commitments the Bible
speaks of in verses like, Proverbs 17:17. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for
adversity.” Proverbs 18:24, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a
friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 27:10. “Do not forsake your own friend or
your father’s friend.”
When David became King of Israel he called together his counselors and asked if there were
still any descendants living of his dear friend and covenant brother, Jonathan, who was killed in
battle together with his father, King Saul. As it turned out, Jonathan had a lame son who David
brought to the royal palace and treated as his own son. That is how it was meant to be from
God’s perspective. Families were meant to come together in bonds of love, protection and aid,
and to maintain the relationships even after the original covenantors had died. There is always
the human tendency to forget about what the grandparents did, or who their friends were, when
rather their lives should be considered part of the family heritage. Proverbs 22:28, warns, “Do no
move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set.” I think the implication goes beyond
more than property lines. It has to do with honoring covenants from generation to generation.
This is part of what provides continuity and consistency to life. It is part of what makes up our
identity.
When you begin to analyze the importance of godly covenant you discover that what is behind
it is love. “I am your friend. I want to meet your needs.” “I am your employee, or employer, I
want to help you prosper.” Life really is not all that complex when you base it on God’s Word
and try to express Jesus’ love through covenant commitment. When people sense that in your
attitude, they respond to you.
CHAPTER 27
Where is my Honor? Where is My Respect?
Our Heavenly Father lays out a very important life principle in Malachi 1:6. He says by way of
the prophet, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master.” Next he asks a question, “Then
if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my respect?”
God’s complaint against Israel was that its citizens weren’t bringing Him the prescribed
sacrifices or offering what they did bring in the proper way. Instead of sacrificing the best of the
flock and the herd they were sending blemished and damaged animals they did not want. The
priests themselves were despising the offerings, practically saying, “Ugh!” The Lord’s message
to them was, “If you dont listen and if you don’t take it to heart to honor my name then I will
curse your blessings.
Now ask yourself this question: If God demands honor under pain of punishment, do you think
that men—who are made in his image and likeness—should expect it also?
The witness of the Bible is resoundingly, “Yes!” And I make this point because in this age of
supposed equality in which every person is just as good as the next, why should anyone get
special treatment? Because God planned it that way to help us maintain the fabric of our society.
Where life is not honored, abortion becomes the norm on one end of the human spectrum, and
euthanasia on the other. In between is all manner of hellishness. It is especially essential for
younger people to realize that there is no lasting prosperity without honor and respect. Often
family life disintegrates because one of the children stops honoring the mother or father, and
begins making accusations like, “You never cared for me. You never gave me anything. You
never really loved me.”
I’ve had to deal with scores of cases of young people who have come to know Jesus as their
Lord, but who carried bitterness in their hearts against their parents. They had either left home or
had been thrown out and had no desire to go back and make amends. I have had to say to them,
“First of all, you are going to have to forgive your parents because that is what the Bible says. In
the second place I want you to begin to understand them. They did love you the best they knew
how. Don’t you realize that they had a whole list of limitations and problems that hindered them
from dealing adequately with you? They took money they could have spent on themselves and
they spent it on you. They tried to raise you the best way they knew. They probably failed in a
thousand ways but mostly they did not do it deliberately or out of spite. Now go back and honor
them. Tell them you are glad they are your parents and that you see they did love you.”
Where the sons and daughters have followed this advice, I have seen the most heart-warming
results. Families have been restored, happy relationships have developed and parents who once
condemned their children’s every action have expressed great delight in what Jesus has done in
their offsprings’ lives. The ingredients that changed everything for the better were honor and
respect. When people have them they can put up with a lot of shortcomings on others’ parts. I
think one of the chief reasons for the breakdown between children and parents, and the quick
restorations once honor and respect enter the picture has to do with this very simple principle.
A man grows older more and more responsibility weighs on him. He has a wife and children to
take care of. He gets involved in community affairs and if he has a responsible job position—
such as a foreman, manager, or employer—he is faced constantly with difficult decisions that can
affect the livelihoods and even lives of many people. One of the things that helps that man
maintain his sense of balance under all the pressure is the respect and honor he receives from his
family. The Bible makes a special point of this by tagging a promise onto the fourth
commandment. It reads, “Honor your father and your mother.” That is the part we all know, but
there is more. The second half of the commandment says, “that your days may be long upon the
land which the LORD your God is giving you (Ex 20:12).” Do you want prosperity? Honor your
parents!
Besides that, the Scriptures tell us we are to honor the Lord, honor the King (or president or
governor), honor our employer, honor the aged, widows, church elders, one another and finally,
all men. 1 Peter 3:7 tells us, “You husbands, likewise, live with your wives in an understanding
way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow-heir of the
grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” We have seen that men need honor.
What is true for them is also true for women. The care of the house falls into her hands and
perhaps the handling of the budget and general purchasing. She is the one who is involved on a
day-by-day basis with the children. She needs to feel appreciated. She needs to know that her
husband is behind her, that he loves and respects her and that he takes into account that she is not
as physically or emotionally strong as he. In God’s heart it is so important that the husband honor
his wife so as to help her bear up under the weight of each day and to give the children a good
example that He conditions honoring the wife to listening to the prayers of the husband. Our
Heavenly Father knows that if the family life is deteriorating for lack of honor, respect and
appreciation the husband’s prayers are hollow.
In relations to honoring the husband, the Book of Ester draws some startling conclusions.
When Queen Vashti failed to appear when her husband, King Asasuerus, called her to the court,
she caused a great furor in Medeo-Persia. She had not only dishonored her husband but also her
king, for his was a royal request. The question was as much one of disobedience as of honor and
respect. The king called in his counselors—the wise men who understood the times—for advice.
They judged that Vashti had wronged not only the king but also his subjects. They said, “For the
queen’s behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in
their eyes, when they report, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before
him, but she did not come.’ This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all the
king’s officials that they have heard of the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive
contempt and wrath. throughout all his empire.”
They counseled that Vashti be removed from queenship and her position be given to another
so that, “When the king’s decree which he will make is proclaimed throughout all his empire (for
it is great), all wives will honor their husbands, both great and small.” Incredible as it may sound,
the harmony, stability, and well-being of the Empire was connected to the act of a woman’s to
honor her husband. The frightening thing is that what was true then, remains true today.
When a man senses he is not being honored by his wife, his children, his co-workers, yet the
responsibilities and pressures are mounting in his life and more is expected of him at every turn,
he begins to lose a right perspective. He starts to think, “Everybody is trying to get something
out of me but nobody cares about me. On the job it’s push, push, push, shove, shove, shove.
From my wife it’s nag, nag, nag. All the kids say is ‘Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie!” I’ve had it. I’m
not going to take it anymore.” At that point his family and friends become his enemies—the
people who are out to take advantage of him. His relationship with his wife goes sour. He tells
the kids something like, “If you don’t like it around here, you know where the door is and the
sooner you go through it the better.” The children, rejected, close down their lives totally to dad
and now there is no possibility of reconciliation and honor unless Jesus steps in to change the
children as I described earlier, or conversely, change the parents so they reach out in love to their
sons and daughters.
Once Jesus enters the picture, the next step in solving this grave problem is to begin to practice
honoring others and to teach your children to do so also. It begins with little things. Speaking
words of appreciation and praise, bringing little gifts of remembrance, getting involved in what
others are doing (on their terms), being courteous and acting respectfully. This latter is a key
activity. Respect means to “re-inspect,” to take a second look at someone or something. Instead
of passing someone by with only the slightest nod you acknowledge them, “Hi! How are you?
Glad to see you.” You respect them; you see them with care.
The same goes for belongings. You don’t leave them when you are done with them. You use
them carefully and put them in their places, not because they are valuable in themselves, but
because they were given to you by the Lord and you are respecting Him by taking care of what
He has given you to use. Or say you are talking to someone and a third person comes up to talk
to you. You have two choices. One is to ignore the person and keep on talking as if you were so
absorbed in the most astoundingly profound conversation that you don’t even see him; the other
is to be courteous and respectful. You stop talking, and turn to the person and say, “Hello, John.”
In other words, you communicate that you see the person. You acknowledge him. You say a few
words, and then you add, “Pardon me. We were talking about something we need to finish up.
As soon as we’re done I’ll be right with you.” Now the person is at ease. He knows he will have
a chance to talk at the right time. Meanwhile, you have been courteous to him, and he appreciates
that. If your conversation isn’t of a private nature, you might invite him to join in, which boosts
his sense of acceptance even more.
There are other things I do on a regular basis. I open the car door for my wife. Some people
might think that is old fashioned: I think it is a good way to show her that she is important to me.
After all, what is courtesy but a mark of honor—of preferring others in love. The old custom of
handshaking is another way to communicate. The modern American habit of coming into a room
full of people and dismissing all courtesy with a wave and a “Hello, folks,” is really a way of
saying “I’m important and so is my time, so I don’t have time to personally salute all of you.”
The custom has reached such lows that in most families if an adult visitor is talking to a parent
and one of the children comes in, the child does not even acknowledge the presence of the
visitor. The training is on “me” not on the other people.
It may be that as you begin to practice respect that you will feel like you are just manipulating
people, or that you are being hopelessly old fashioned. Those thoughts come from the enemy.
Discard them. Be respectful and courteous. Honor all men. If your attitude is negative toward
doing it, do it anyway and God will change your heart. Even better, He will change the hearts of
those around you so that they too will respond to you in a loving, respectful way. The whole
world is crying out to be respected. Standup Comic Rodney Dangerfield developed a whole
routine around the plaintive cry, “I can’t get no respect.”
People want to live in respectable houses, in respectable neighborhoods, wear respectable
clothes, and have respectable friends. That is almost missing the point, because respect does not
come from things, it comes from people. Who are our friends? They are generally the people
who respect us. The others are coworkers or acquaintances. That is why when you begin
listening to other people, actually paying attention to them, honoring them for their
accomplishments, they automatically draw near to you and become your friends. Think about
your home life. If you are a man, instead of coming in the door and walking over to the TV or
the newspaper, or to see what mail came, you call out to your wife and say, “Hi dear! How was
your day?” And you give her a kiss and a hug, and pause to talk with her. Or if you are a woman,
you stop what you are doing for a few minutes to salute your man and let him know you are glad
he is home instead of bombarding him with your argument with the garbage man and the
problems with the kids or simply ignoring him because you are in the middle of making dinner.
Likewise, both men and women need to pay attention to their children, respect their opinions
(correct them if necessary), honor their efforts, express love daily to them physically with kisses
and hugs. Such bonds of love and honor do not break easily.
As one of the ministers of a church I make it a point to stand at the back of the meeting hall to
shake hands or give hugs to the members of the congregation, including the little ones. I want
them to know they are important to me, that I honor and respect them, that they are worth my
time and attention. I have even found that when I have expressed genuine respect for the persons
and accomplishments of so-called important and unapproachable people, I have found that they
have opened up and shared their wisdom with me. Like everyone else, they want to be respected
too. Many people go to great lengths to build up a lifestyle that communicates to others that they
are important but the fact is that the sense of importance they self-generate is only appearance,
not real satisfaction. What they crave comes from the respect and honor that other people
spontaneously give them. I have known women who have put up with poverty and all kinds of
troubles. When I have asked, “Why do you put up with that man? He does not earn a good living.
He is constantly in financial troubles.”
They have replied, “I am important to him. He needs me. He respects me.”
Honor, respect, courtesy—they overcome a multitude of faults and problems. In fact, if I had
to make a choice between resolving some financial problem so that my family could live more
comfortably and showing genuine respect for those around me, I would choose respect. With
honor and respect, a man can eventually resolve the other areas of his life but if those two virtues
do not work in him, he may lose everything that is dear to him.
CHAPTER 28
Long Term Relationships
As we have looked at reciprocity, service to others, long term perspectives, integrity, respect,
and covenant-making as qualities necessary to the development of prosperity-building character
in our lives, you may have noticed the factors that tie them all together. Each of those qualities
deals directly with our need to relate actively with others. For example, you can’t talk about
covenanting with someone without thinking of serving him. Jonathan served David by helping
keep him safe from King Saul’s attempts to take his life. Again, there was the long term
perspective involved in their covenant too. David, even after Jonathan’s death, cared for his
friend’s son, Mephibosheth. Besides that, they honored one another, and walked in integrity,
faithful to their mutual promises. Lastly, each of these qualities, when practiced with its mates,
has the power to transform your thinking process from a self-centered, “What do I get out of
this?” point of view to a Christ-like concern for other people’s well-being.
You might say that the essence is the establishment of enduring relationships. As I have
emphasized previously unless you are surrounded by loving family and friends any amount of
financial success is vanity. Your fortune won’t love or respect you nor will it satisfy your
innermost desires for comprehension and companionship. Therefore you must make practical
unity a priority in your life. By this I mean that as you practice the qualities I have listed here,
you are always on the alert to reach out to others with the idea of establishing long term
relationships with them. If you are able to do so successfully some of those relationships—be
they nothing more in the beginning than going to the same barber each month or going to the
same teller at the bank—will turn into friendships and even into covenantal commitments. More
importantly, your behavior may be the testimony that wins these persons to Jesus, in which case
you have not only gained a friend, but a brother or sister for eternity. Here are a few tips on how
I put practical unity in action:
I invite people to eat out quite a bit as a way to show them my interest and appreciation toward
them. But I do not just walk into a restaurant and sit down. There are certain restaurants that I go
to frequently and when I enter I make a point to greet the owner or host and the waiters, to leave
a generous tip and to compliment the workers on the food and service. Sometimes I talk to them
a bit about their lives. Most people are oblivious to the waiters or waitresses unless they want
something. I try to establish a relationship with them, a practical unity that will be of mutual
benefit. For instance, I went to an inn one afternoon with a friend and found that there were no
tables available and I had not made reservations. “I’d like a booth,” I told the host.
“I’m sorry sir, there is nothing available.” Then he looked at me, remembered who I was, (I
think something went through his mind like, this is the guy who always treats me well when he
comes in), and said, “Follow me. There is a table I can arrange.”
Of course, I recognized his effort with a generous tip, and you can be assured that had my
guest been my banker or lawyer, he would have been left with the thought, “A lot of people
know this Durkin. He must be a pretty successful character.”
Sometimes those little practical unities have served me in much more critical situations than
getting a table at a restaurant. When the Gospel Outreach ministry was catapulted into the
international spotlight by the presidency of Efrain Rios Montt in Guatemala, newsmen suddenly
wanted to know about this church that the Guatemalan president belonged to and who its leader
was. Some reporters called various influential people in Eureka and Humboldt County to get the
“real picture” about Jim Durkin and his ministry. I can’t say that everyone claimed to be my best
friend, but what the bulk of these interviewees said was something akin to, “Durkin” sure I know
him. He’s been in the community for years. Pretty honest guy. Done a lot for young people,
getting them on the right track, that sort of thing.”
You see, over the years I have tried to avoid demeaning or belittling people, or getting angry
with them in business and social transactions. I have tried to be courteous and considerate toward
others, even with those I only see on a causal or transitory basis. The major reason for this is
explained by Paul to Timothy in talking about the qualifications of an elder in the church.
“Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into
reproach and the snare of the devil (I Tim. 3:7).” Being well regarded by non-Christian and
Christian alike really means bringing glory to God. What the reporters who investigated Gospel
Outreach and me during the Rios Administration in Guatemala found was that we were not some
strange, isolated or aberrant sect but well-known and highly regarded Christians whose aim is
openly to serve God, not self. What a different story the newsmen might have written if when
they talked to people in Eureka, they had heard statements like, “Can’t tell you much about the
guy. He is secretive. He has been around for years, but doesn’t seem to have any friends. Doesn’t
talk to anyone, kind of stays within that cult he’s got going.”
Perhaps you are saying to yourself. “These examples are good for Jim Durkin. He is the head
of a big ministry. He HAS to relate to a lot of people. I’m just a working guy. Why should I
worry about who is going to say what about me?” One reason is that if you practice what is in
this book you won’t be “just a working guy or woman.” You will be a man or woman with a
specific destiny to fulfill in God and you may very well need the good report of your
neighbors—if not today, perhaps in five, 10 or 20 years. It is to your best interest to get along
favorably with as many people as possible. You need people who can give a good
recommendation about you to prospective employers, business associates, bankers, suppliers,
etc. A glowing recommendation about your honesty, integrity, friendliness and other good
attributes is a greater asset than properties and money in the bank. Never underestimate the value
of a good report. The evangelist St. Luke considered it noteworthy enough that he said of the
young Christ, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke
2:52).” Let that be your testimony also, for if you can’t find favor with God AND men, you
won’t be able to accomplish much of value in this life (unless the Lord has destined you to suffer
persecution, in which case you will at least find favor with discerning Christians.)
It is indispensable that you build long term relationships or you will not have any character
references. Suppose you were applying for a university grant. Do you think the review board
would put more weight on a reference who knew you for five years or one who knew you for
five months? How about 15 years?
That is the wisdom of the proverb we discussed in the chapter on covenant, “Do not forsake
your own friend, or your father’s friend.” All of us need friends who will love us during the
course of our lives—trusted companions who will stand by us in our difficulties and our low
points and who will rejoice with us in our victories and moments of glory. But this circle of
intimate friends obviously has to be somewhat limited by the nature of the time we have at our
disposal. It is humanly impossible to have very many close friends. One translation of Proverbs
18:24 says, “A man of many friends comes to ruin.” However, we can and should develop casual
friendships or working relationships with many people. These are a few healthy steps beyond
friendly interchanges with waiters or bank tellers but not on the level of the deep spiritual
fellowship we expect from close friends. These are the kinds of relationships that given the right
ingredients can turn into something more profound. People who fit into this category are those
with whom you deal with on a semi-regular basis: your insurance man, banker, accountant,
people in related professions or businesses, authorities in your career field or in your hobbies,
specialists and repairmen you depend on, doctors, dentists, and so on. Many people—especially
when dealing with industry or business owners or professionals—automatically grade themselves
on an interior social scale. If they feel their level is below that of the other they never try to form
any relationship other than. “Give me your service. Here is your money. Thank you.” Don’t be
deterred by ideas of status. Except for a few misanthropes and the very proud, most people will
respond to someone who shows genuine interest in them. Once you establish rapport, don’t go
switching around just because you can get a “better deal” somewhere else. The best deal is long
term trust and mutual aid, even if it is a bit more inconvenient or costs a little more. In one case I
developed a good working relationship with an insurance man over a period of years. He handled
my personal insurance needs, those of my real estate business and those of my church. On one
occasion he went far beyond the boundaries of normal service to find me a certain difficult-to-get
policy. About a year later some other policies came up for renewal and my business associates
talked to another agent who showed them how we could save three or four percent by switching
to him instead of renewing with our usual agent. I tried to show my associates that the
knowledge of our needs and the personal trust and willingness to go out of his way of the first
agent was worth far more than a few dollars we could save with the second. With the first, there
was continuity, experience, relationship, goodwill—all things that are very valuable not only in
the context of the business at hand but in that of the affairs of the community. That first
insurance man could speak well of me to the banker, the city councilman, his minister, his
friends. I could speak well of him. If I were constantly hopping from one insurance man to the
next, looking for the best deal, there would be no sense of loyalty or of a desire to extend oneself
to help the other.
Not too long ago I had a series of problems with the travel agency where I do business.
Because my ministerial work requires me to do a lot of traveling, including to foreign countries, I
need expert help in getting the best prices, the best timing and the test routing. This agency
started slipping in its work—sometimes special food was not ordered, or reservations were not
confirmed, or the routing was not the best. The normal tendency in such situations is to say,
“That’s it for that agency. I am going where they treat me right.” This is actually a devilish
attitude. The Bible tells us that Satan is always trying to separate friends. I think he works
overtime to make sure people don’t form friendships in the first place. The Christian attitude is to
forgive the person who had wronged you and try to straighten the matter out. I went to the owner
of the agency and told her, “I am going to speak firmly with you. Frankly, I like doing business
with your agency and there is no reason for me to switch to another if we can resolve certain
problems in the quality of your service.”
After I explained what happened, she replied, “Thank you. Most people never give us a chance
to correct anything. They just go away angry. We are glad to have your business and we will
make sure in the future that you are well taken care of.”
Since that time I have received extraordinarily good service from the agency, and to show my
appreciation, I have gone back and told them how pleased I am with the quality of attention they
have been giving me. That is honoring them, recognizing their desire to cooperate. It is building
long term relationships . An additional benefit is that that lady—the agency owner—is going to
speak well of me in the community. She knows that I am looking out for her best interests in our
relationship, and I know she is responding in kind. That is what I mean by practical unity. Now
we are both in the position to help each other out in our respective fields as the need arises. The
other way—if I had switched agencies, or if she had said, “Buzz off. We don’t need your
business”—both of us would have been losers.
In a way, this and the other incidents I mention in this chapter carry within them the element of
harmony. Practical unities to a large degree are good old fashioned harmonious relationships.
One definition of harmony is, “That which blends or fits together.” To round out your grasp of
the nature of long term relationships it is important to see how harmony fits into the total picture.
The thirteenth chapter of the First Corinthians, generally known as the “Love Chapter,” is an
excellent illustration of what harmony is all about, and how you should apply it to developing
long term relationships. I won’t quote the entire chapter here, just chose some highlights that
have direct bearing on how harmony can help you establish valuable interchange with others.
First, love puts up with many things—difficult things—for long periods of time. This is essential
in relating to others. If something goes wrong it does promote harmony to explode, stomp around
in anger or attack the other person. Patience and long-suffering do. Instead of getting upset with
the travel agent, I talked to her about the problem I was having with her services. The point is
you don’t want to stir up anger in yourself or others. You want to avoid adverse reactions. You
want to stir up good emotions, good thoughts, and find ground for resolving differences. This is
the mind of Christ—gentleness and meekness. Next, love does not flaunt itself nor is it puffed
up. This means that the worldly person’s three best friends, “me, myself, and I,” are not the focal
point of life. There should be plenty of room for honoring the other person.
Again, I think of opening the car door for my wife as a good example of this. Under normal
conditions, it is something I do automatically, but when it is raining and I haven’t brought my
umbrella, the thought always comes through my head to rush out, open the door on the driver’s
side, and flip the automatic latch so Dacie can get in on the other side. Why should I stand out
there getting wet? I open the door for her anyway. This is precisely the opportunity to prove to
her that I love her even more than myself. This fits in nicely with the truth that love does not
seek its own advantage. From a short term viewpoint it would have been to my advantage to
switch insurance agents and save a few dollars but a man who is building harmonious long term
contracts wants others to know that he is seeking their advantage too.
Love does not take into account wrongs suffered. If you want to live in harmony with others,
and keep building unity with them, you are going to have to overlook a lot of wrongs—some
deliberate, some unintentional. With this quality goes the fact that love bears and endures all
things. This is definitely long term, as in a marriage. There was a time when I took a short term
view about living with all the things my wife did that I did not like so I said “I have had it. I am
getting out of here.” It took a broken home and a few aimless years, but I thank God He taught
me to be a burden bearer and a man of endurance. When you get to the point that you can take
rebuff and rejection and still go back and try to promote a harmonious relationship with the
person who has wronged you, you are well down the road to being a unity builder—a quality that
we will see is vitally important to your program for total prosperity. You are saying to that
person, “You are someone special to me. You are important. I want to know you better and get
along with you.”
In summary, here are the condensed observations of the Apostle Peter about these matters of
relationship, “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as
brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on
the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For
‘He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips
from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue
it’ (1 Peter 3:8-11).”
CHAPTER 29
Wise Counsel—The Key to Sound Decision Making
To be successful, you must have some ability to read tomorrow’s newspapers today.
I am not referring to tarot cards or astrology or whatever else Satan uses to confuse men’s
minds. I mean you must be able to go to the Source of all knowledge—past, present and future—
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in prayer that forthrightly requests them to guide the
specific steps you are considering on the path of life. Most likely they won’t tell you, “tomorrow
such and such will happen in this particular way,” but they will guide you to the moves which,
when you see the future unfold, will prove too have been exactly right.
You can start on the path by taking those God-given faith pictures you have, develop them as
well as you can, submit them to the scrutiny of godly men and women you know and trust and
then take your conclusions to the Lord. For example, instead of, “Should I invest in rental real
estate?” you say to our Heavenly Father, “Lord, part of my plan for prosperity includes
investments. I have considered real estate and after talking the matter over with both investment
professionals and with trusted personal advisors I think that I should put a down payment on a
rental house. Lord, please help me in this decision. I want to be a good steward. I want to do your
will.”
Note that one of the steps in preparing for prayer is to submit your proposals to godly men
and women. I call these people “spiritual counselors.” They are people with whom you have
deep personal friendships, even covenants. You need them because the decisions you make will
affect your entire life and the lives of others. You need them because God in His infinite wisdom
has so constructed and ordained you that you are not able to be self-sufficient. You need to be
linked to others. Your spiritual counselors and you are part of the same Body of Christ.
Where do these counselors come from? I have shown you how to set about making long term
relationships and how to nurture them over a lifetime. Most likely, among the people you are
now relating to (family members and old friends) and among those you will cultivate as your
friends, you will find a circle of people on whom you can call to help you map out the important
decisions in your life. If this idea seems foreign to you, think about the way the world is set up:
In the Bible we find that the kings—both Israelite and pagan—had their counselors. In today’s
world, presidents have their cabinets and advisors. Corporations have their board of directors and
technical experts. Generally, where you find success, you find men working together toward
common goals. Your life should not be any different. As a priest and king in God’s kingdom,
you need advisors and counselors. Link up with others. Make serving Jesus the hub of your
relationship, and then help each other develop according to the specific vision God has given
each. These spiritual counselors are your unity group.
Now let’s look at what the Bible says about counsel. First, there is the counsel of God, and the
Scriptures are replete with men and women who have gone to the Creator for counsel. For
example, Psalm 73:23-24 says, “Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold me by my
right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
Proverbs 8:14 states two basic kinds of counsel: that of the ungodly that will lead us ruin
and that of the godly that will lead us to prosperity. Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the
scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law he meditates day and night.”
The law of the Lord is found in the second group—the godly men and women with whom you
need to surround yourself.
Of them, the Bible says, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
but in the multitude of counselors there is safety (Proverbs 11:14).”
“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise (Proverbs
12:15).”
“Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established
(Proverbs 15:22).”
“Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days (Proverbs
19:20).”
“Plans are established by counsel; by wise counsel wage war (Proverbs 20:18).”
Getting the kind of counsel the Bible talks about here is not the easiest matter in the world.
You have to work at developing your unity group—carefully choosing those people who are
genuinely interested in helping you, and who are harmonious by nature. You, of course, will
have to be just as willing to help them in their endeavors. This is the reciprocity principle. As
you link together, you will find that some quite unusual spiritual laws come into play. The first
principle is Jesus’ promise, “ For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am
there in the midst of them (Mat 18:20).”
If you acknowledge the Lord as the rightful head of your group, and subject all counsel to His
final revision, you will have the Master of the Universe always at your side to guide you. He
won’t make your decisions for you for He wants you to grow into maturity and integrity by the
exercise of your spiritual values. But His loving presence and wisdom will be there for you to
draw on. In a way that is how parents should train their children. Secondly, the power that is
released into the world by your unity group is far out of proportion to the sum total of energy of
the individuals who make up the group. In God’s unity arithmetic, two and two don’t make four,
but something more. You have Jesus with you. That is an enormous power boost. But let’s
review some other scriptures: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for
their labor. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold
cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).”
Leviticus 26:8 adds, “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten
thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.”
The key to the release of this power is that the group be harmoniously integrated. It can’t be
just an aggregation of people. Each member has to have his heart and mind set intensely on the
well-being of the others, and must be committed to success. This latter is very important because
the instant you start drawing together with others to achieve certain goals that it’s impossible for
each alone to accomplish Satan intensifies his attack against you. He has his own set of goals for
your life—that you be poor, sick, unstable, and miserable. Unity of purpose and dedication to
one another will give you the wherewithal to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
In the beginning you will probably have to convince people to cooperate with you because this
concept of unity groups is not very well known in the realm of personal affairs. Suppose you say
to a friend, “Can you lend me $5,000? I am starting up a painting business and I am short of
cash. Starting in one year I will pay you back $500 a month until I have covered the debt.”
If your friend sees you as a good risk he might do you the favor. But if you say to him
something like, “I am starting a painting business as part of the economic phase of my total
prosperity plan. I would like you to link with me as a permanent counselor, not only in the
business but in other areas of my life. Can I count on your help?” he will have a harder time
getting a handle on what you are saying. In many families not even husbands and wives are
accustomed to planning on this level! You’ll have to present a vision to him, and you will have
to show him what advantage there is for him in the arrangement (reciprocity again) or as soon as
there is some disagreement or misunderstanding and being linked to you becomes a strain, he
will drop out. He must understand the high value of the Bible places on counsel and his part in
both giving and receiving it.
To make this whole idea more clear in your mind, let’s take the example of the painting
business.I have no intention of laying out “Step one, step two, step three,” of some easy plan to
form your group. Rather, I’m going to present several concepts that, when practiced together,
will lead you into a solid covenantal relationship with a group of people who are committed to
you and to whom you are committed. They will be your chief counselors, as you will be among
theirs. Choose them well. Cherish their advice. There are few things in the world more valuable
than wise counsel, and conversely, few things more expensive than bad advice. On the basis of
sound advice King David was able to restore his kingdom when it was usurped. On the basis of
bad counsel, Solomon’s son Rehoboam lost half of his, and no king after him managed to
recover the tribes that broke away
1. As you begin linking with others do not look only for people who are like you in
temperament and outlook. If you are going into the painting business, you might want a
painter or a paint store employee among those in your group. But a painting business is
more than painting. You would be wise to look among your friends for an accountant,
somebody in advertising, a person involved in another business, a scholarly person with
good research abilities, plus those friends who do not necessarily have skills related to the
business you are going into but on whom you can count to tell you when you business
interests are getting out of balance with your family and church obligations.
2. Do not include friends who are contentious or who like to argue. They will disrupt the
group and divert its attention and energy from achieving goals to disputing minor points.
3. Make sure the people you choose are compatible at least to some degree and that they are
the type of people who like to cooperate, not force their points of view on everyone else.
Furthermore, they should be SOLUTION ORIENTED.
Perhaps a man or woman can look at your painting business and say, “The reason you’re
not making any money is because you’re not advertising. That’s the problem. You have
to advertise.”
“How do I do that?” You agree with the analysis, but you don’t know anything about
advertising and neither does anyone else in your group.
“Well, put an ad in the newspaper.”
That is not the solution. The solution is to investigate advertising as it applies to your
particular painting business, and to come up with a plan of action. There are plenty of
people who can tell you what you need or what is wrong with your plan or practice, but
they do not have the ability to search out solutions. The people you want around you are
the kind of people who will tackle a problem and stay with it until they find a workable
answer.
4. Be sure that you understand, and that your counselors understand, that you are not asking
them what your direction should be. You should already have a faith picture of what your
destiny is in Jesus Christ. What you want them to do is help you find the BEST WAYS to
achieve your objectives. You are not asking your unity group to consider if you should
join the army, go to a Bible Institute, or get married. You are saying, “Friends, my goal is
to start a painting business. Please help me map out a plan to achieve this goal.” Now
everyone is tuned into a specific wavelength. You have the vision; they will advise you
on the best way to achieve it. Even then, after you have heard all the counsel, you are the
one who must make the decision and the responsibility for the result is on your shoulders,
not on theirs.
Let’s look at King Rehoboam. After Solomon’s death, the people came to him and said,
“Please lighten our work load. Your father Solomon laid heavy tasks on us that were hard
to bear.”
Rehoboam said, “Give me three days to think about it.”
He asked the old men who had been Solomon’s counselors. “What should I do?”
“Lighten the people’s burdens and they will serve you. Your kingdom will be
established.”
Next he went to the young men with whom he had been brought up and asked them the
same question. They replied “Tell the people that if they thought Solomon was a hard
taskmaster, you are going to show them that you’re even heavier by adding to the work
load and disciplining them even more severely.”
Rehoboam chose the latter advice and 10 tribes rebelled against his high-handedness.
Was it his young counselor’s fault that he lost half the kingdom? Not at all! The decision
was Rehoboam’s and the blame too.
5. If a course of action does not work out, do not get angry with your counselors or yourself.
If revisions are in order, make them. If it turns out you missed the mark altogether and
that you should not be in the painting business, but in plumbing, then make the change
without condemning yourself or others. Suppose your counselors told you to advertise in
the morning paper and even helped you devise the ads. After a month and $500 worth of
ads, you have not landed a single job traceable to the newspaper campaign. You never,
NEVER go back to your group with an accusation, “I did what you guys said and lost
$500. What kind of deal is that?”
The proper approach is, “Friends, I tried the newspaper ads, but do not seem to be getting
any results.” You show them the ads. “Did I do something wrong?”
A person might say, “Yes. You spent a lot of money on a few large display ads. We
thought you should use the money to place a small daily in the service classified. Maybe
you didn’t hear that part.”
So you try again, and this time it works. Whereas you wouldn’t have come back with a
complaint against the group, you definitely go back with praise. “Guess what? I changed
the ad to the service classified and got the ad salesman to polish it up a little, and I have
received 10 calls and got six jobs from them this month. Things worked out so well that I
just want to share the blessing, so I bought you all...”
6. Meet regularly with your counselors. You need to stimulate one another to good works
and sharp thinking. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the
countenance of his friend.” Your interaction will literally stimulate you all into a higher
range of thought.
There are two models you can use for the meeting. One is the board model. It’s like you
are the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the company and the others
are your board members. They cooperate with you on your vision because you are
reciprocating by putting your time, talent, or money into some enterprise they are
working on.
The second is the club model. This is probably the most common. For instance, there are
thousands of investment clubs across the country. Their members pool certain amounts of
financial resources, share the work of researching, and make common investments to
leverage costs and effectiveness.
Other clubs leave it up to each member to make his own investments. You might all
decide to pool your talents on each one’s specific project. In any event, the reciprocity
principle must be in action. Nobody can afford to give input and give input and give input
without some compensation unless he is a wealthy philanthropist and even then he will
expect at least honor, thanks, appreciation and perhaps some special or unique gift that
shows you really care for him.
The New Life Service Company of which I am one of the founding members is based on
a unity group principle. Several of us drew together to help each prosper. I was already
financially independent and working full-time in the ministry, but I joined the business to
help my partners eventually to be freer economically to extend the Kingdom of God,
which is one of my chief concerns in life. We are a conglomerate of small business—
vinyl repair, upholstery, painting, janitorial services, carpet cleaning, roofing, automobile
detailing, etc.. We share bookkeeping, secretarial help, office space, and some sales and
advertising programs--all of which cuts down tremendously on overhead. Moreover, we
constantly recommend one another’s businesses to our clients. If the painters see their
client’s house needs a new roof, they tell them about our roofers. They tell the roofers so
they can follow up on the lead. We have found ours to be a very well integrated unity
group because its principle aim is not making money, but promoting the total prosperity
of each partner, their employees and their families. This, to us, is to glorify God in all we
do. You will have to decide on the model for your unity groups on the basis of your goals
and on the nature of the people with whom you are working.
It may happen that you are not a leader. There is an old story about the horse that was led
into a stall that had a manger on either side. In one manger was hay and in the other, oats.
As the horse started for the hay, it glanced over and saw the oats and decided they looked
tastier. On the way over to the oats it looked back and saw the hay and it looked fresh and
delicious so it reversed its decision. Finally it starved to death. That is how some people
are. They are not decision makers. They are not “take charge” types. If you are one of
them, look for the leaders with whom you can ally yourself. It may be that you are
exactly the first mate some captain needs. Together you get in the boat and head for your
destination, each needing the other for success of the voyage. That is part of the idea of
the unity group—a recognition that you do not have all the ingredients yourself to be an
overwhelming success. You need others. It is not a question of “Better than” but of
“different than.”
8. Know a good counselor from a bad one. King Rehoboam’s problem was not lack of good
counselors. He had access to some superb and seasoned men. His problem was judgment.
At least in the process he found who the bad counselors were. You are probably going to
have to find out about the quality of some of your advisors the same way—that its, by
trial and error—but you can minimize the risks and loss of integrating a group that
includes varied background and ages. Also, you can choose from among people who are
known to have given good advice consistently to others. If certain people in your group
leave you drained, distraught, upset or if you see their reasoning process is too hasty, too
superficial or too fuzzy, you should find a courteous and gracious way to help them move
on to something more suited to their temperaments. Your counselors should contribute to
a positive frame of mind for you and the others.
9. Sometimes it is right to include a person in your unity group who is not at the moment (or
perhaps never will be) a great asset. Part of our Christian walk is to bear one another’s
burdens. As you get stronger and more prosperous, you should automatically reach out to
those who are not as fortunate. This can include taking a person into your unity group
who is just starting out, or who because of personal limitations has not been able to make
any headway. From a human perspective, these people will be a drag on your rapid
progress, but I tell you of a surety you will find favor with God.
10. Be prepared to bear criticism. Your armor, when complaints come, are grace and mercy.
Listen quietly and attentively with no thought about immediately defending yourself. It
may be that what the critic is saying is exactly right, and by following his line of thinking
you will save yourself a great setback and much grief. On the other hand, the criticism
might be invalid. Perhaps the person is angry or discouraged with you or is not seeing the
facts clearly. Softly but firmly reiterate your position, and continue on until you reach
your goal or God clearly indicates a change to you. Above all, do not be pressured by
circumstance; keep your long term perspective intact.
11. Consider your church a vital part of your total prosperity plan. Church is not somewhere
you go on Sunday for a meeting; it is a community of believers joined together by God,
and dedicated to edifying one another and to glorifying God and extending His Kingdom.
Your elders and other leaders are spiritual counselors and perhaps experts in other fields
as well. They can equip you for Christian service. I assume that the bulk of the people in
your unity group will be from your congregation because of your natural affinity and
contact. But if they are not, they should be PARTICIPATING members in another
congregation in your area. No member in your unity group should be an unbeliever.
12. Do not underestimate occasional or paid-for counsel. All the help and advice you will
need in life won’t be available within your unity group. From time to time, you will have
to seek out other friends or experts in certain fields. If you have been developing long
term relationship with as many people as possible, and keeping yourself informed about
your field of operations, you will know who to look for. I make it a regular practice to
talk by phone with men and women around the country who are experts in the fields in
which I am involved. We swap ideas, opinions, and advice. In some instances, I pay for
expert counsel--such as investment newsletters or daily financial reports—to supplement
my own research and that of my unity group.
13. “Walk not in the counsel of the ungodly” does not mean you do not listen to unsaved
people. What Kind David is talking about in Psalm 1 is that on any question of morality
or life direction, you want reliable Christian counsel. If you want to know whether nylon
or bristle brushes are best for painting wood house exteriors with oil base paint, you talk
to brush manufacturers, experienced painters, and paint suppliers. They may or may not
be Christians. Counsel on purely temporal matters should come from the best available
experts in the field. I would rather buy my brushes on the basis of what a non-Christian
paint brush expert tells me than that of a Christian who pained his garage once a few
years back.
14. Start now to list the possible members of your unity group. Make a firm resolution to
begin talking to them about your proposal as soon as possible, and be sure to have
established what you intend to give them in return for their cooperation. Remember,
“Give and it will be given to you.”
CHAPTER 30
Following the Leader
I am now going to expose the shocking truth about the great majority of people who
become Christians. What follows is a direct quote from a distinguished Christian author whose
writings have the stamp of spiritual authenticity:
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the
things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised
God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no
flesh should glory in His presence.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as base or weak, but it is our Heavenly Father’s
assessment of the majority of us before he began his transformation process in our lives. The
quote is from St. Paul’s first letters to the Corinthians 1:26-29. I refer to it here because most of
us have some serous defects in our lives that we’ve brought with us from our worldly
upbringing. Unless they are transformed into positive character traits we will not travel far
towards success. This is especially true of those flaws which mar our ability to lead others.
In the last chapter I indicated some of us make sterling first mates. That doesn’t mean that if
we don’t have a primary calling—a captain’s position—that we are not leaders. Husbands have
to lead their families. Mothers need to lead their children. Leadership is not limited to
instructions and organizations. All of us need to activate certain leadership qualities. I’ve already
covered topics like decision-making, perseverance, security, stewardship, risk taking. In addition,
we all need to be leaders in godliness: tenderhearted, merciful, gentle, peaceable persons. We
need to be tough, yes, but not in the sense of hard, cruel and cynical, but in the sense I’ve already
presented: resilient persevering, enduring.
You need fortitude to stand up against all hell breaking loose around you and softness to reach
out in love to a shy little girl or to a hurt old man and pick them up and carry them and make
room for them in your life. If you let God transform you along these lines, prosperity and
blessing will flow out of you in every direction and across generations. That’s leadership and
here are capsule comments on some specific areas that will help you begin practicing this
transformation:
1. Wisdom: Traditionally we like to think of great leaders as very wise men. In the case of
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, this was true. But other wise men like the
prophet Daniel were not sovereign rulers. They were counselors to rulers. The real
wisdom of a ruler is not that he himself is wise, or always has the answer, but knows
where to find wisdom and understanding. Proverbs 20:5 says, ‘Counsel in the heart of
man is like deep water,
But a man of understanding will draw it out..”
The leader humbles himself. He says to his friends or advisors, “Look, I don’t know all
that much, but I can generally make a good decision if I have the facts, and get them in
order. I believe you men have the facts and the insights to put them to work. Let’s see if
we can’t harmonize everything and come up with a plan.”
2.
3.
4.
5.
The wisdom of the leader is that he is a very good listener and decision maker. He knows
how to draw out counsel for proposals or projects. When he hears what others have to
say, he can identify the wisdom and use it. Most people want to help once they see they
actually have an audience, someone who not only listens to them but who wants to learn
from them, and who gives them all the credit for successful plans put into action.
Humility. This is the great key for keeping people together for long periods of time.
Genuinely humble people are quite easy to get along with, especially if they are always
honoring and building up those around them. Just check what the Bible teaches: “The
fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility (Proverbs
15:33).” Similarly, Proverbs 18:12, says, “Before destruction the heart of a man is
haughty, and before honor is humility. The greatest leader of all time, Jesus, presented
himself as meek, humble, gentle and full of love.
Courage. Here we have to distinguish between gutsy self-confidence (“I can do it. Get
out of my way.”) and absolute confidence in God. The three Hebrew youths who were
thrown into the Babylonian king’s superheated fiery furnace had the latter. They knew
they were in a win/win solution: Either God was going to deliver them, or they were
going to be ushered quickly into his presence. The courage it takes to stand unswervingly
on your principles at such moments comes from Jesus, who is our courage. He
understands your weakness (remember, “Not many mighty, not many noble”) and is able
to impart the courage you need to stand up in the face of every attack, even when your
own mind is playing tricks and your friends and family are heaping criticism on you.
I think of those missionary women who converted the Aucas in the Ecuadorian jungle.
Their menfolk died trying to establish themselves among a tribe of savage headhunters.
Then Rachel Saint and Betty Elliot risked their lives to continue the work. You would
think that a woman who had lost her husband to uncivilized Indians and had a little child
to care for would not have the courage to go into the very same jungle to preach the
Gospel, but Betty did. That is a courage based on security in Jesus—the same quality the
Hebrew children displayed at the furnace. It is an indispensable leadership quality,
powerful enough to turn weak cowards like Gideon into men willing to take on massive
armies with a handful of soldiers or to change two ordinary women into God’s instrument
of salvation for a whole tribe.
Temperance. This comes from the Greek word, agrathea, which means possessing
power, strong, having mastery or possession of, continent, self-control. In 1 Corinthians
7:9 it refers to the control of sexual desire. In 1 Corinthians 9:25 it means the control
athletes must have over their bodies as they train for athletic events. The basic idea is
that you have control over your desires and impulses of whatever stripe. It is your
moderation that must be known to every man, not your excesses. In order to maintain
fruitful long term relationships with those around you they must be able to perceive you
as a self-controlled, temperate man. If you are given to angry outbursts, sudden
extravagances or extremes of any kind, people will mistrust and shy away from you.
Your own family will fear your eccentricity and withdraw from you. In the business
world if you can’t control your emotions, greed, or fears, you will make irrational
decisions.
Loyalty. This is another of those characteristics that the world has gotten backwards. We
hear about loyal citizens, loyal workers, loyal soldiers. How often do we hear about loyal
governments, loyal employers, loyal leaders? To be successful you have to be loyal to
others. Make them feel wanted and secure and they will extend their loyalty to you. In
modern America loyalty is to the lowest price. If product “A” is two cents below product
“B” this week, the average Joe switches to “A”. If employer Jones is offering better
fringe benefits than employer Smith, the working man looks for a job with Jones. And if
farmer Brown can get illegal aliens to pick his strawberries cheaper than domestic field
hands, it’s good-bye to the latter. This is hardly conducive to long term relationships, and
it will never promote trust.
From a purely economic standpoint, lack of loyalty diminishes production, causes undue
expenses for breaking in new employees and fosters negligence and theft. When I
establish a relationship I make it a point to let the person know I intend to be loyal as
long as there is a reciprocal exchange and even beyond that if I have hopes of turning a
declining situation around as in the case of the travel agency that had started slipping in
its service. As an employer, I let my workers know their positions are secure with me
and that I will honor them with bonuses and other recognition for work well done. I want
to be loyal to them, because every leader should be concerned about the happiness and
contentment of those who work with him. This applies to the leader of a great corporation
or to the father of a family.
To bring more clarity to this point, let’s accentuate disloyalty. Let’s assume I have a
salesman. He is a good average salesman and has been with me for 10 years. But one day
another salesman who just moved into the area comes to my office looking for a job. His
dossier indicates he is an aggressive, high sales promoter with a record of bringing in new
clients in old territories. I can’t afford two salesman but I do want to expand my business.
I fire the man who has been with me for ten years. Maybe at the end of a couple of
months with the new man the balance sheets show an increased profit. It looks like I
made a good decision but there is just one problem. My employees who aren’t part of the
sales force don’t look at me the same way. Whereas, I used to walk among them and they
would say, “Hi, how’s the wife,” now none of them trust me. They’re all wondering
when I am going to get someone to replace them.
Meanwhile, I can’t help thinking that because I fired a good man for purely monetary
reasons, I am not really that loyal of a person. I see the attitude of my employees has
cooled toward me, and I replace my open, friendly manner with a hardened, “I’m the boss
here,” exterior. To top everything off, my super salesman gets a better offer somewhere
else, and he leaves, and I am faced with the expensive task of finding another man. This
is not prosperity, no matter how good the profit sheet looks. I have lost something inside
of me where prosperity really dwells—all because I did not understand the nature of
loyalty. Loyalty has to be one of the foundational stones of your prosperity because its
practice affects the lives of everyone around you. Your loyalty will give your spouse
peace of mind and contentment, even when other factors are difficult. Your friends will
know they can depend on you. Your employer will give you greater recognition if you are
loyal. You will be able to build valuable long term relationships because of it.
6. Honesty. There are two kinds of truthfulness: exterior and interior. The first is what you
tell other people. The second is what you tell yourself. Put a high value on personal
honesty. When you tell yourself you are going to do something, do it. Don’t get tired of it
in two days, or in 10 days, or in 10 months and quit. You said you were going to do
something, now be honest with yourself. Was it a right thing? Yes. Then why are you
giving up? You are being dishonest to yourself. There should be no difference in your
mind between telling someone that you are going to do something for them and in
promising yourself something. If you can’t be true to yourself, you’ll find it very difficult
to make your word hold up in your dealings with others.
7. Gratitude. When you consider that one of the strongest traits of a good leader is the
ability to build harmonious relationships with others, you see the necessity of gratitude or
thankfulness. The Bible tells us to walk in our Christian faith with our heart overflowing
with gratitude. This attitude keeps us in the correct frame of mind. It is not “I deserve,”
but “I’m so thankful for.” Never take anything for granted. Vocalize to others how much
you appreciate what they have done for you, even if they haven’t done all that much. Tell
God how thankful you are for all He has given you. This is one of your Christian duties.
Once you are in the habit of expressing gratitude, you will begin to see just how much
those around you have contributed to your growing prosperity how they have served and
loved you and how you can’t really move ahead without them. Then you will find it easy
to do what I Thesalonians 5:18 requires, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you.” This is the world’s best cure for a complaining heart and a
criticizing spirit and people will love you when you are thankful to them.
8. Resoluteness. This simply means that when you decide to do something, you do it. You
devise your plan and you move from step A to B to C to D until you have done what you
decided to do. Far too many people get an inspiration or a wonderful plan and either they
never follow through or they get diverted and never complete the project. The resolute
man will see his plans through in an orderly way.
9. Liberality. This quality is a step beyond reciprocity, which is mainly returning like value
for like value. Liberality is giving more than is expected or required in a situation. It is
not extravagance, which is foolish giving. It is the opposite of stinginess, which is always
trying to put in the least and get out the most. Proverbs 11:24-25 says, “There is one who
scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will also be watered himself.”
We have freely received all that we have from God so we should freely give of the
blessings he has given us. Do you see that this is actually to act like Jesus? As you give
extra measure to those around you, you will build up goodwill and respect.
More importantly, as you liberally give to those who cannot repay—the poor, widows,
orphans, the sick—you put into force the spiritual laws in which God sees that your
liberality is backed up by His blessing. The famous Quaker plant breeder, Elwyn Meader,
who attributed all credit for his more than 40 years of work to the Lord, developed over
three dozen different fruit and vegetable varieties that have become commonplace in
America’s gardens and markets. When asked to summarize his work, he replied, “I can’t
look back on my work because it has never stopped. But the most valuable thing I have
ever done is to give things away. Cast your bread upon the waters and you will get it back
in many days.” As he shared plant breeding materials and techniques with other
investigators—many of whom went on to add the finishing touches to his discoveries and
reap the credit for the commercial results—they began to send him seeds, cuttings, and
information that might be of use in his work. Instead of depending on his own research
and abilities, Meader sought help from investigators around the world who became his
willing collaborators. Why? Because he shared with them, and he gave of his God-given
discoveries to the world.
10. Compassion and mercy. To those with a “tough guy” mentality, these two qualities are
equated with weakness. It is not very macho to be merciful, but the people you work with
certainly appreciate it. Time after time the Gospels report that Jesus had compassion on
the multitudes. He healed them, fed them and listened to their problems. He sympathized
with their needs. Even when they failed him—as Peter did before the crucifixion—he
extended mercy and restored them. You will find that people will fail you too (and that
you will fail others on occasion) but you will be able to maintain harmonious, godly
relationships with them if instead of heaping guilt and reproach on them, you extend
compassion. It may be that you have spoken a strong word of correction to someone
because he is not doing all he should be doing. Compassion will act like a balm to heal
the problem and to spur the person onto greater future effort.
11. Proper concept of authority. Every leader must have authority or else he is not a leader
but that authority must not be flaunted. It is grating on people’s sensibilities. It is like one
of those watches that goes “beep, beep” every half hour. It is one thing to have an alarm
watch that you set for a certain time to remind you to call or do something at that hour. It
is something else to have a watch that is continuously beeping. It might be a great toy for
the owner, but to others it is so distracting they probably wish he would take himself and
his watch somewhere out of earshot.
It is best not to have to state your authority. If you are the husband, your wife does not
want to hear for the umpteenth time that you are the head of the household. If you are
doing YOUR job, she will most likely be glad to follow your lead. Except in the case of
rule by brute force, authority only goes as far as the people under it recognize its
legitimacy or effective force. If the children, for example, realize that when mother gives
them an order they can ignore her, the extent of mom’s authority is zero. But if they can
lay hold on the fact that it is God who tells them to obey their parents, the mom’s
authority is divinely established. The Bible tells us that all authority is of God, and the
powers that be are ordained of God. Most people almost intuitively grasp where authority
lies, and if the person who exercises it does so in a humble and kindly way (and this in no
way does away with firmness) they generally follow without complaint or rebellion. But
let the leader try to force his will on others and he will discover just how ornery human
nature can become.
12.Responsibility. Did you ever notice that when a person with authority walks into a
chaotic situation, the first information he demands is, “Who is responsible for this mess?”
Things are as they are because of the responsible party. As a leader, whether you are
leading yourself or 1,000 men, you are responsible. You are the covering. When the
private wrecks the jeep, the lieutenant asks the sergeant what happened, not the private.
The sergeant—if he is a wise man—assumes responsibility because he knows in the
chain of command that he is responsible for the private’s on-duty actions. “I am sorry,
sir, it was an accident. I will correct the situation immediately.”
If the news gets to the coronel, he wants an explanation from the lieutenant, not the
sergeant. If the lieutenant says, “Sir, it’s that private Jones. He’s always getting into
something,” the coronel knows he’s dealing with an officer who does not know how to
accept responsibility for those under him.
Human nature does not like to accept responsibility for anything unless there is
congratulations involved. When the first couple sinned, Adam blamed Eve and Eve
blamed the serpent. Actually, Adam blamed God, saying, “The woman whom You gave
to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate (Genesis 3:12).” In other words, “Look
God, why did you give me that woman. Why didn’t you give one who knows how to stay
out of trouble. It’s all your fault.” That is the ultimate in blame shifting.
In my own life, the moment I decided to accept total responsibility for who I was and
where I was at, I started to become successful. I was praying to God one day, somewhat
distraught over my circumstances. I always blamed everyone else for my failures. “If
only my wife understood me, if only my children weren’t so rebellious, if only my
congregation would accept me, then...” I told God that I would bear all responsibility for
my own actions and for those under my authority.
Perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of acceptance of responsibility for those
under his authority was the case of Moses. God decided to destroy the Israelite nation
after they worshipped the golden calf and got into some rowdy partying. Jehovah told
Moses, “Now then let Me alone, that my anger may burn against them and that I may
destroy them; I will make of you a great nation.”
Moses identified with the people. After all, he was an Israelite too. He didn’t excuse
their sin, but he didn’t disassociate himself from them either. He acted as a responsible
leader should act—as a covering for those under his command. Even though it seemed to
be to his personal advantage to let God kill the people (he stood to be the father of a great
nation), he begged the Lord not to destroy Israel and God relented. Put that same quality
to work in your life. Protect your family. Take responsibility for those who work under
you.
13.The Bible. The habit of carefully reading and meditating on the Bible is one of the most
important characteristics any leader can have. Because it is God’s word, because it
thoroughly equips us for every good work, every positive character trait we need to
develop is presented and illustrated. It also clearly portrays negative traits and their
consequences.
The Bible is much like a magic looking glass. It shows you who you are in God. Maybe
you say, “That’s not me, I’m not like Jesus. I don’t think that way. I don’t have those
qualities.”
The Lord replies, “In my plan you are all the good things the Bible says. You have all
the leadership qualities necessary to be totally prosperous and to bring me great glory.”
If you accept this truth, the Holy Spirit will help you identify the types of situations in
which you have acted contrary to God’s will and your own best interests. He will then
help you act rightly. Each time you look into that looking glass of God’s Word, you will
find that the gap is closing between how you act and how God says you should act. The
visible result is the fruit of the Spirit in your life---love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.
These seven virtues give substance and depth to all the leadership characteristics that are
developing in your life. For that reason I am going to comment briefly on them:
LOVE. You need the love of the people around you and you need to love them. If you tend to
get bitter because people don’t do things the way you want or live up to your expectations, you’ll
find that love overcomes that wrong attitude. Love casts out the fear that maybe you will want to
replace them (divorce the spouse, fire the employee, get new friends). Love is a way of treating
people that lets them know you deeply care for them and their well-being, that you are willing to
extend yourself on their behalf, and that you intend to do so all the days of your life.
JOY. When we begin to practice love, joy naturally flows into our lives. It is sort of an
abundant sense that life is wonderful, God is working with us from His throne in the heavens and
all is well.
PEACE. Many times in life your plans are going to go haywire or there are going to be serious
misunderstandings with your coworkers. This is when peace serves you. You will look into the
inner core of your being and find you are at peace though everything around you is exploding.
Why? Because your eyes are fixed on things eternal, not on mometary problems. You know the
solution is in Christ Jesus who has given you his peace.
GENTLENESS. Some folks might think it is all right to be a rough and tough guy. God has a
different perspective. Jesus is the gentle lamb of God. He knew how to be firm when He drove
the money changers out of the temple, but he did so justly, not harshly. Your gentleness will
stimulate like responses in others and you will find yourself living in a relaxed, peaceful
atmosphere instead of on the edge of hardness.
LONG-SUFFERING. This is patience. It is the ability to put up with things and with people
long after your mind has told you, “This is too painful. I am not going to stand for any more.”
As you learn to be long suffering you will avoid fights, blowouts, arguments, hard feelings.
People will see you as a pillar of stability and clear thinking.
FAITHFULNESS. The simplest description is that it’s the ability to believe and act on what
someone has said. You already have developed faith toward God, but you must extend this
quality to your interaction with others. When somebody tells you, “I am going to do such and
such,” don’t have the attitude of “Sure, that’s what you always say but where are the results?”
Agree with him, encourage him, have faith. Your faith in him may be all the other person needs
to carry out some great task.
SELF-CONTROL. This is another word for temperance, which I have discussed earlier in this
chapter.
KINDNESS. This is closely related to the compassion and mercy that I have already discussed.
GOODNESS. This is the quality of being able to look into the Scriptures to see what God says
is good and then to do it in spite of what the world says. The world’s system is set up in such a
way that bad becomes good. For instance, abortion advocates say, “Abortion is good. Unwanted
pregnancies are bad.” The Bible says, “It is not good for a man to touch a woman (referring to
two people who are not married to one another.” Stopping fornication and adultery would deal
with the bulk of the abortion problem. Within the marriage context, the Bible affirms, “Behold,
children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is His reward.” The Bible overflows with
examples of goodness. The world agrees with some and not with others. The man who
practices goodness is not concerned with the world’s view of good and bad, even though
adhering to the biblical view may cause persecution. Goodness to him is what God says is good.
In the end men will admire him for his integrity and to be convicted by his testimony.
In closing this discussion of leadership qualities, I’d like to present Micah 6:8, “He has shown
you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.” Do that and you will be a leader PAR EXCELLENCE.
CHAPTER 31
Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman?
A young man came to his minister for advice one afternoon. He had only been married a few
months but the honeymoon was long since over and he was beset by domestic strife and
argument. “I don’t know what to do with that woman,” he complained. “I just don’t understand
her.”
The minister leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. “You never will understand her until you
realize this: Woman are just different.”
That answer seems foolish. Everyone knows that men and women are physically different, but
that is not what the pastor was referring to. He meant women’s emotional makeup, the way they
look at life, their needs, the nature of their goals and ambitions, their mental attitudes—
everything about them—don’t fit into masculine perceptive categories. The man who attempts to
understand women based on his point of view won’t even remotely succeed but then, neither will
the woman succeed who tries to place men in her feminine mold.
I know the idea of the equality of the sexes is trying to eliminate the fact of these distinctions
by saying that many non-physical differences between the sexes are the result of cultural
conditioning designed to keep women in a subordinate place. So liberated women are working at
jobs that are traditionally masculine and entering into sports the men generally play. Male weight
lifters, to name one sport, now work out side by side with “muscle girls”.
I am not convinced by women’s liberation. Women are different then men because that is how
God made them. God has set the roles for each. In a marriage there is not equality of decision
making. The man’s role is to guide and to receive the wise counsel of his wife, but he is the head
of the family and his wife’s role is to submit to his direction. This is not degrading to women.
God tells the man to cherish and care for his wife, to treat her with honor and tenderness as the
weaker vessel and to love her as Christ loved the church.
I would call that a rather exalted feminine position. What is important is that if men and
women want to understand each other, the Bible is the textbook. Most of what I am going to say
about women here is mainly in the context of marriage (but still beneficial for the singles’
understanding of the opposite sex). Unless for some special purpose of God a man or woman
remains single, the normal human state is to marry and raise a family.
In general we all need the approbation of other people. This need is intensified in the husbandwife relationship. The Bible tells us that the desire of the woman will be toward her husband, and
that he shall rule over her. She needs her man’s support. That means he will have to walk in
purity toward other women so that his wife will feel secure. He needs to treat older women as
mothers, and the younger as sisters. Learning to do this should be done in the context of the
family and church long before a man or women is married. These are roles that must be taught or
sin will enter with all its destructive power.
Once married, each partner has a special role to play in bringing prosperity into the family and
in establishing it in such a way that even the grandchildren will be blessed.
In the process each will find there is a major pitfall to avoid.
For the man, “He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind (Proverbs 11:29).”
For the woman, “The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her
hands (Proverbs 14:1).”
How do they ruin their homes? By doing the reverse of all the good practices I have been
telling you about! Barring gross sins like adultery and abandonment, this usually has to do with
nagging, complaining, unappreciativeness, lack of respect and courtesy, demanding attitudes,
ridicule, and all the nasty and hurtful things that pass from the lips of people who lack
understanding
With that preface I now want to focus on who God says the woman is. My premise is that God
created one model woman and that she is a composite of all of the wonderful qualities of all the
godly woman of the Bible. All women are to mold their lives on this model. This doesn’t mean
all will be alike, for all are unique creations and the model will be manifested in personal and
particular ways in each woman. The clearest exposition of what this woman is like, and how
every woman should see herself, and how every man should see his wife and the womenfolk
around him, is in Proverbs 31:10-31 (refer to Chapter 12 for additional information about this). If
you picture the Christian woman as some weak sister who stays home and watches the kids,
now’s the time for re-education. The virtuous woman of God is strong, capable, wise and
resourceful. She is everything “liberated women” would like to be if they could only get free of
the veil of deceit Satan has pulled over the eyes of their understanding.
This section of Proverbs begins, “Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.” Madam, if you’re married or hope to be, you are that
excellent wife! Sir, if you’re married, your wife IS that woman. God never made any woman
who did not have those capabilities. If you take on the view that your wife is a capable,
intelligent and virtuous woman, that is exactly the kind of wife you will have. On the other hand,
if you treat her like a dog, she will turn and bite your hand.
“The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain.” The man is freed
from worrying about what she is up to or whether or not she is carrying out the things he has
asked her to do. He is free to concentrate on his business affairs and she is free to run the house
and handle her household as she sees fit.
“She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.” The text goes on to describe her
creativity, her abilities with the employees (men today might consider getting at least part-time
help for some phases of the housework to free their wives for their creative efforts), her business
acumen.
“She considers a field and buys it; from her profits she plants a vineyard.” Unless she lives in
an agricultural area today’s virtuous woman probably would not buy land and plant a vineyard,
but find some other business compatible with her talents and the needs of the community. She is
definitely not a mousy housewife who knows nothing about business, or about the economic
realities beyond the prices at the supermarket.
In relation to grasping the principles of giving, and of having a heart toward the less fortunate.
“She extends her hand to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.”
The entire picture of her household is one of wealth and prosperity because she is a diligent,
accomplished woman who governs her family well. Verse 23 says, “Her husband is known in the
gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.” That is to say he is a well-known, respected
and influential man. He got that way with the help of his wife, who helped free him to handle the
family’s affairs outside the home. And please notice I said “The family’s affairs,” because the
two are partners. It is not that she has her life and he has his and they live together. Not at all.
They each have their spheres—a division of labor and interest—but they are working together
and his success is a direct result of her participation in their partnership. Until I clearly
understood this, I was continually bossing my wife about the affairs of the household. It was
almost as if she were my domestic employee rather than my wife. Then I realized she is my
equal and we are partners in life. Within the context of my final decision-making role, my wife
has broad discretionary powers to write checks, make money, buy lands, hire and fire employees
in those businesses she manages. Naturally she seeks my counsel in all important matters, as I
seek hers. We are in the same unity group.
“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many
daughters have done well, but you excel them all.’” What a tremendous compliment, and what
tremendous success in life! Here is a woman who has become prosperous through the work of
her hands. She has helped her husband become prosperous and well-known in the community.
She is surrounded by a family that loves and honors her. This is a truly liberated woman—she is
liberated from all the fears that gnaw at the hearts of people who have discarded God’s plan and
have opted to lean on their own understanding of life. The virtuous woman is so secure that she
smiles at the future. She is not concerned about losing her prosperity, her husband, her position.
She and her husband are part of a lifetime covenant.
Lastly, “Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.” She
has worked and invested wisely, and proven she knows how to handle resources. She has
provided for the family and given to the poor. Her husband can rest knowing that whatever she
spends will be well spent. And everyone will hold her up as a model of an excellent wife--an
honor both she and her husband will enjoy.
With just these few bold word strokes I have painted here I hope you have captured the picture
of that virtuous lady God wants to see emerge from the heart of every Christian woman. Men
need to reinforce that image in what they say and do. If this is done men and women will be able
to work harmoniously in unity groups, offering their unique perspectives to the building up of
all. If a man’s counselors were only other men, he would lose a dimension of advice that no male
is capable of giving. Really, your spouse is the best counselor. If you treat her the way God says
she deserves to be treated, she will stand by you through all kinds of trials and troubles, she will
make sacrifices, she will wear less than the best clothes, she will cook the most common and
cheap foods, she will live in a small house—all to work with you toward a common goal you
have prayed about and decided on together. If you do not treat her as a virtuous woman and as
your most valuable counselor, you can literally work your fingers to the bone and never achieve
your ends because you have never established the dynamics of unity.
You also need the help of women other than your wife to attain your goals. If you have a
secretary, treat her also as a virtuous woman. This will protect the both of you from temptations,
and give your wife greater peace of mind. Be sure to tell your secretary, “I appreciate your work.
You take care of so many important details. Thank you.” Speak confidence and security to her
and to your other female employees. But never involve yourself emotionally with them. If they
need counsel, have them talk to your wife, or with you and your wife, or with a female coworker. And never give any woman the idea that you see her as more than a business associate,
secretary, bookkeeper, steno, etc. Make your working relationship clear, and keep it that way.
Where those lines are carefully drawn, the business relationship can go on for 20 to 30 years
without the slightest problems.
Additionally, the Bible tells us to avoid the appearance of evil. That means there is never a
time when you go on a business trip with a woman other than your wife. It doesn’t matter if she
is the world’s most valuable secretary, is 20 years older than you, and has six kids. The
appearance is not good, even though the world may consider it perfectly acceptable. The
exceptions would be if a group of people were traveling together or if you were traveling with
your wife and secretary.
Likewise, don’t go out to lunch or dinner alone with a female associate, even if you have
business to discuss. Lunch is never seen as just lunch by other people. Someone might see you
and start gossiping. The next thing your friends will start coming to you privately to ask, “I heard
you’ve been going out to lunch with the buyer for Acme Clothes. What’s going on?’ That will
affect your emotions and trouble your mind. Worse, that lunch or dinner might trigger sensual
thoughts in your mind, and you’ll have a difficult time viewing that woman as merely an
employee or business associate.
Be very careful of receiving much sympathy from coworkers of the opposite sex. Sometimes
the motive is to cheer up old Joe if he is going through a depression. “Come on, Joe. It is not all
that bad. You’re a great guy.” Maybe the speaker is a sincere single woman, but Joe does not
hear that kind of talk at home from his wife because maybe she is in a depressed place herself.
The next thing Joe is thinking, “If only my wife were like Lizzie. She is so sweet and
understanding.” Next he is on the way to devising a new and more intimate relationship with
Lizzie that will only end up in pain and grief for everyone.
I’ve brought these matters up because prosperity to a great degree depends on clean moral
living and fidelity. A man must see his wife as a virtuous woman who satisfies his every
legitimate need, and the woman must see her husband as a loving and protecting partner.
Together they must guard the integrity of their marriage, avoiding the snares that Satan
unceasingly places in the paths of the unwary. At the same time they need the help of the
opposite sex in their endeavors, buy as St. Paul advises, “Let all things be done decently and in
order.”
SECTION FOUR
Business and Economics
CHAPTER 32
How to Be a Good Steward
Several years ago a man confronted me with this statement, “You have money. Give it to the
poor and follow Jesus.” I suppose he was referring to the story of how Jesus confronted the rich
young man who was bound up by his wealth and unable to advance further in the kingdom of
God.
I give money away all the time. That is charity. But give it all away? To whom? If I did,
where would be the portion the Bible tells me to lay up for my children’s children, for the
church, and to make opportunities for others? Jesus didn’t tell everyone to sell all and give to the
poor. In fact, the overwhelming testimony of the Bible is not for voluntary poverty but for
conscientious stewardship. Your wealth is not yours, it’s God’s. Your job is to find out how He
wants it used.
When the Israelites left Egypt God told Moses, “Speak now in the hearing of the people that
each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and
articles of gold.” They did so. The Egyptians loaded them down with gold, silver and clothing.
The Israelites also took their flocks and herds with them, and a large group of foreigners
followed them. The reason God commanded them to ask the Egyptians for valuables (which
they willingly gave after the firstborn of their people and animals died on the night of the first
Passover) was because the Egyptians owed them—as it were—back wages for all the years they
had been in slavery and because they were going to need capital to start up a new life in Israel.
True, during the years in the wilderness the Lord supernaturally fed them manna and made sure
their clothes did not wear out but those benefits disappeared when they reached the Promised
Land. It was now time for the Israelites to prosper on their own. The basic working capital God
gave them was the land plus what they received from the Egyptians and through conquest. He
told them to divide the country among the tribes. To protect them against permanent poverty
through poor management, he commanded that debts and conditions of servitude among the
Israelites be canceled every seven years and that every 50 years—the year of the Jubilee—all
land sold during the intervening years be returned to the families to whom it was originally
assigned. In other words, God returned the working capital to those who had lost it for one
reason or another during the years. From this and other examples we see that the Bible
demonstrates there are necessary uses of capital in the development of prosperity. The Bible is
not opposed to capital. Nowadays, however, there is a rising chorus that sings the tune that neosocialism is good and that capitalism is evil. If someone were to ask me, “Are you a capitalist?”
I would take the word at its simplest definition and say, “Yes, I have capital and I use it.”
That is what the Israelites did. They had their land. It was not owned by the State. They had
goods and cattle. The animals were not part of some socialistic commune. Nor did the
government involve itself in welfare programs beyond administrating what God had stipulated—
the cancellation of debts every seven years and the land returned at the Jubilee. Caring for the
indigent was the OBLIGATION of every Israelite. It was the duty of the people who were most
expected to know the needs in their respective communities. The way God set up the Israelite
nation, there were both use of capital and free enterprise. By this latter I mean that the Israelites
were free to work their farms, free to buy and sell in the market place, free to contract workers,
and even to buy slaves from among the heathen nations. Free enterprise is nothing more than
taking capital (the money you have saved up over the years) and risking it on some business
venture.
Now how did all the current ideas against the use of capital and against free enterprise enter
into our society? Mainly through government-supported educational systems. Before dedicated
humanists like Horace Mann and John Dewey reshaped the American educational system,
teaching was either privately funded or in the hands of local citizens in each community. Today
public education is a very big business. Teachers and professors from preschool through postgraduate university levels are government employees. They don’t know any other way to make a
living than to receive salary from the state. With few exceptions, they are not farmers,
businessmen, or workers in private industry.
They get their paychecks indirectly from the people who are capitalists while they propound
intellectual ideas about the benefits of socialist society. I suppose this is a natural outgrowth of
their dependence on the government and their lack of experience in other spheres of life. But let
me ask: What jobs has any government ever produced without capital? In socialist nations
governments take the capital out of the hands of the people and bureaucrats manage it. But what
they use is still capital—state managed capital rather than privately managed capital. The
inefficiency and ineptness such socialist—or state-run capitalist—systems is enormous because it
removes risk taking, individual initiative, creativity, personal accountability, and other qualities
that make for constantly increasing prosperity.
There is not a limited amount of wealth in this world. If God is honored, if capital is well
managed, and if obligations towards one’s family and the poor are met on every level of society,
God’s law of increase will operate and there will be abundance for everyone. It is not religions
(the so-called opium of the masses), nor control of the means of production, nor any form of free
enterprise that is the reason for the poverty and exploitation in the world today. I haven’t seen
that any form of socialism has improved the situation. The problem is the heart of man. Man
who does not fear God is continuously evil and his tendency is toward destruction and
degradation. Capital is not bad. It is what men do with capital that becomes good or bad.
In the sense that I am defining capital, all of us are capitalists. God has given you brains and
brawn. This is the raw material you convert into other forms of capital that you can use to
acquire things which you are unable to produce or to set aside for the time when your physical
capacities won’t serve you as well as when you were young. There are three usual ways in
which you can accumulate wealth, rightly taking into account that everything of value in this
world is owned by someone, or regulated by some government—right down to the fish in the sea
and the birds in the air. First, you can take what exists and sell it as raw material--say a forest for
lumber--in which case you have to be the owner of the land or the lessee. You could also take
the raw material and form it into furniture. In either case, a certain amount of your life—your
time, thought, organizational ability and craftsmanship—was used to increase the value of some
low-cost material. Unless yours is a purely charitable operation, you add to the value of the tree
on the stump in the forest or the piece of furniture a reasonable amount for services provided to
give yourself...what? That hallmark of capitalist enterprise: a profit. If you do not do that you
will eventually deplete your human capital and end up on the dole.
Second, once something has been crafted—the trees into lumber that was made into a house,
for example—you can take over the maintenance or preservation of that wealth so that it
generates income. Suppose you have a house that you live in, but in the process of applying the
first means of accumulating capital—making furniture—you accumulate a surplus. You decide
to invest the money in a second house which you maintain in good condition, pay its taxes, and
rent to another person. You did not build the house, yet it generates an income because you
maintain it. Doctors and dentists are also maintainers or capital preservers. You are the capital
they are helping to maintain in good physical shape. You therefore pay them for their services,
just like your renter pays you for the service of providing him a house. In both cases—the
extended professional education of the dentist and doctor, and the profits of your furniture
making—there is a very significant amount of capital invested in the service offered that needs to
be compensated. But it is nothing like the false old adage, “Money makes money”. Money
doesn’t do anything. It is inert. The people who invest their time and talent in investing money
make money.
The third way is the easiest of all. You don’t do anything. You inherit wealth—from your
parents or the proverbial rich uncle. Or somebody gives you a gift of lands, goods, or money.
In every case, unless you want that capital to flow through your fingers like water, you had
better be business minded. I have seen far too many young people come into an inheritance and
squander it on consumer items and “good times” and then wake up one day like the prodigal son
and say, “Oh why did I ever waste all that money?” You don’t have to be a business man, but if
you expect to prosper you have to understand business. It is a natural function in life in which
you and your family constantly take part. Every time you buy something at the grocery,
purchase new clothes, or pick up new notebooks for the children’s school work, you are involved
in business. Again, my definition is very simple: business is simply the interaction of people who
are rendering useful services to one another. There is certainly nothing sinister about that!
Whether it is the boy who cuts your lawn on Saturday morning or a multinational corporation
that builds automobiles and employs thousands of workers, the process is fundamentally the
same. Useful service is rendered for useful service, usually represented by money, which in turn
signifies life expended for life expended.
If you were a potato grower, you could make a deal with the lawn cutter to give him potatoes
for cutting your grass. Such a swap would be more difficult with the auto manufacturer. The
logistics of barter on that level would be stupendous. That is why money has become our
medium of exchange, the measure of life expended. Nevertheless, money is only one form of
capital. Once again, manpower and creative thoughts are at your disposal. If you are a bluecollar worker, you are involved in business. You are selling the capital God has given you-brains and brawn—in exchange for another form of capital, usually money. Once that money is
in your hands, you have three elements to work with: brains, brawn, and money (which
represents a certain amount of the former two, based on how well you were able to sell your
services). If you spend your money on consumer items, you will end up with that which will
turn to rags and dust around you. If you put it into productive channels like buying a house,
starting a business or investing you can ultimately build up enough of a capital base that your
investments will support you. Unless you sell your brains and brawn to someone who needs
them, they aren’t too valuable. No one is going to pay you for pounding nails in boards, or for
standing on a street corner. You must employ your personal resources or they will simply
deteriorate 365 days a year for the 70-odd years of your life. Poof! All your capital will be gone.
You will be a weak old man with nothing to show for your lifetime.
You can avoid capital depreciation by hiring out to someone who needs what you can do. You
give him your capital—your ability to think and work—in exchange for his capital, which could
be anything of tangible value, but usually money. For each day you work you preserve 24 hours
of personal capital. For each day you lounge you lose 24 hours of capital. Whatever you have left
after paying the bills for those 24-hour periods, is your investment potential. This is the money
you can use to increase your capital without having to expend as much physical effort.
My wife and I during the earlier part of our life took that investment money (when it was a
small sum) and planted a garden in the backyard. We kept chickens and ducks. We canned a lot
of the garden produce and ate or sold the poultry and eggs, cutting down significantly on our
grocery bill. Thus we had more capital available for investment. Eventually we started looking
for buildings to buy and rent, and got to the point where our investments provided us with
enough of an income that we were no longer had to preoccupy ourselves with making a living.
Let’s say I will live to 70. That means I have approximately one-sixth of my life capital left. I
don’t have to devote any of it to making money (beyond managing what I already have). That is
financial freedom, and I have been experiencing it for years. I now devote my life fully to
whatever God shows me, which in my case means serving the body of Christ as a minister
without being a monetary expense to the church.
Contrast this with the average man. He works until the day he dies or he retires on a pension
that limits him to a very small sphere of possibilities. This is a shame. It may be all right for man
to start out working because he has to, but in his later years he should be working because he
wants to. Anyone can do this. It isn’t that some people have what it takes, and others don’t. It is
mainly an understanding of the correct use of capital. Far too few people think about
investments. They have the strange idea that investments are for people with money. Most
people with money got that way because they started with personal capital—brains and brawn—
and invested what they could preserve from each paycheck. They also realized it is not wrong to
capitalize on other people’s efforts. The Bible makes this quite clear: You shall not muzzle the
ox that treads out the corn. Is God so concerned about oxen that he put that principle in the
Bible? The main purpose is to teach us that the man who labors is worthy of his salary. Does the
ox live off the person who feeds him? Or does the ox’s owner live off the produce of the ox?
Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the
strength of an ox.” Those who benefit by the work done should be willing to pay for it, whether
it is the boss paying his worker, or the congregation supporting its pastor.
To clarify this biblical principle let’s take one of my rental properties. I bought a dilapidated
house some years ago. It was structurally sound, just very uncared for. I repaired it and rented it
out both because I had the capital available to do so and because I knew there were a lot of
people who needed places to live. I offered them a service. To the extent that I live off the rent
of that house, I am living off of other people. This is the reciprocity principle in action: I provide
the house and assume responsibility for taxes, repairs and depreciation. The renter provides me
with money. This is the whole idea of business. We live off of each other by exchanging capital.
If a man does not have investment capital, if he is always the renter, and always living from
paycheck to paycheck, it may be because he is not practicing the principles of God’s Word. One
of the foundational precepts of true prosperity is that the wise man lays up a portion for his
children’s children. This one scriptural principle encompasses many of the others we have so far
examined. If the wise man lays up a portion, what does that tell you about the money he gets in
today? He is not spending it all, he is investing it. Most likely he is directly or indirectly lending
it to someone who is, or wants to, put it to good use. Buying stock in a company is actually
lending capital to that business. Maybe he lends it to a friend who says, “If you lend me $30,000
you can be a partner in my business. I think we are going to make a lot of money and you will
get one-third of the profits.”
Had he not lent the money maybe his friend would not have been able to start the enterprise.
The capital he lent was money he had carefully laid up—perhaps he even sacrificed things he felt
he needed—to have investment potential. Once again, who lives off whom? Reciprocity is at
work benefiting both men.
Let’s say this man’s friend builds a duplex in an area where housing is very scarce, but jobs
are plentiful. He rents it out to two families that otherwise would have had nowhere to live in the
area. Because they found housing, the husbands were able to get jobs. The man who built the
duplex actually did those people a genuine SERVICE, just as his friend who lent him the money
had done him a service. Everyone is living off of everyone else, yet no one is exploiting anyone.
In fact, this rendering service principle is a financial application of Jesus’ spiritual principle,
“Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires
to be first shall be slave of all (Mark 10:43-44).”
Doesn’t it stand to reason that an employer who finds a way to provide jobs for a large number
of people will end up prosperous? He has made opportunities for others, and by doing so he has
made opportunity for himself. Both he and his employees prosper. I am reminded of the story
Jesus told of the landowner who went to the marketplace early one morning to hire laborers for
his vineyard. He repeated this process at night in the morning, at noon and at three and at five in
the afternoon. Each time he found men standing idle. At the 11th hour he asked, “Why have you
been standing here idle all day long?
“No one has hired us.”
The landowner replied, “You too go into the vineyard.”
If the capitalist had not had somewhere for those day laborers to work they would have stayed
idle the entire day and their personal capital would have dwindled. The landowner was a man
who had utilized capital and turned it into a business that blessed these other men while it
increased his prosperity also. That is the key--the utilization of capital. Thinking it wrong or not
knowing how to do this are the two most important financial reasons for lack of monetary
success. The Lord says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).” So many
people are not only not practicing the Word of God, they are actively pursuing totally wrong
things out of ignorance. This is because the world’s system has molded them into its oppressive
conception of what’s right and wrong. If they begin to practice the truths of the Bible, the
crabology syndrome tries to pull them down to the norm.
People will say to them, “You’re going to live like a pauper to save a few measly pennies for
investments? I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Spend it while you can. Prices just keep going up.”
Investment capital is just one area, but the uninformed will attack any of God’s truths that
differ from what the world system teaches. This area of capital and its use is probably one of the
strongest areas of prejudice creeping into Western society. That is why I have taken the time to
explain what capital is, and to show that it is not wrong or evil to live off of other people if the
relationship is reciprocal. Think about the picture many people have of landlords. They are often
portrayed as gouging, money-hungry ogres who turn widows and orphans out into the snow. Or
take businessmen. They are portrayed as fat cat capitalists who exploit their workers while they
live in opulent luxury. There may be some who indeed act like that, but the majority are people
who are serving their communities by offering housing and employment to those who are
starting out on the road to economic success and to those who for want of knowledge stay in the
same rut of get-and-spend all their lives. This latter condition is not the landlord’s fault or the
entrepreneur’s fault. It is the lack of applying oneself to the principles of godly prosperity, or of
thinking that somehow the Lord is against capital.
In the parable of the talents Jesus makes a point of the use of capital, but before we see how
there is a basic premise we must understand. It is found in 1 Cor 15:46, “However, the spiritual
is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” The great spiritual truths of life are
illustrated in the world around us. We find in the first chapter of Romans that God’s invisible
attributes and his eternal power and divine nature are manifest in the creation. Likewise, King
Solomon drew many of his deep teachings on life from observations of flora and fauna. The
Lord is teaching us through our stewardship of earthly things how to reign with him in his eternal
realm. How well we use what he has given us here will determine the nature of our reward
hereafter. This is in keeping with another spiritual law, “As a man sows, so also will he reap.”
As you look at the parable of the talents, remember there is a deep spiritual application. At the
same time, the story undeniably treats the question of capital, investment and profit on a material
level. Those who would spiritualize the teachings of Jesus to such a point that they deny the
material applications do themselves and others a grave disservice. It was Jesus Himself who
said, “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon [money], who will
commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s,
who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:11-12.)”
The parable starts, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who
called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to
another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went
on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made
another five talents (Mat 25:14-16).”
Following a material application of this parable what the master affirmed at the beginning was
“My servants, I am going to give you an opportunity to prosper. Here is some money. Invest it.”
Though it is difficult to determine the value of a talent. I have seen various estimates that it
had a buying power of over two million of today’s dollars. That would mean the first servant
could have been given as much as $10,000,000 to work with. He evidently has learned trading
principles, business strategies, and a sense of self-confidence that he really could do his master’s
bidding. Otherwise the master would not have entrusted him with such a large sum of money.
Likewise, the owner gave money to others according to their abilities.
Second, in telling the servants to trade, or do business (as is brought out in the parallel story in
the Gospel of Luke), the master was assuming there were risks to be taken. He wanted his
servants to take those risks, and two of them did.
Perhaps servant number one said to himself something like, “Here is a herd of cattle for sale. I
think I can buy them and take them to Joppa and clear a 20 percent profit on the deal.” That is a
risk. Maybe he misjudged and found the Joppa market saturated with cattle on the hoof, and
ended up selling at a loss. On another deal he may have made a little, maybe a lot, but he had to
be constantly trading to make that capital double. He didn’t put it in a bank (where, by the way,
people who are willing to take risks go to borrow the capital of those who aren’t willing to take
risks). Perhaps he bought a shipment of carved ebony wood boxes from Africa and found he
could not sell them. After several months of having the boxes around he realized that
merchandise that can’t be sold is like burying the money in the ground, so he made a drastic cut
in the price, and cleared out the goods at a loss. At least he had some money back in his hands to
buy another product that might sell better and start up the trading process again.
The parable of Jesus is rich with stated and implied business principles. In the business
context that Jesus makes this illustration we can deduce that he looked positively on trading with
money, on risk taking and profit making. We assume this because if he thought these capitalist
endeavors were wrong he would have used a different illustration. Also, he would have
congratulated the third servant who didn’t get involved in capitalism but took his talent and
buried it in the ground, returning it to his master intact on his return. Instead, he said, using the
words of the servant himself to drive home his judgment, “You wicked and lazy servant, you
knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you
ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received
back my own with interest (Mat 25:26-27).”
The master said to the other two—who had doubled their money by TRADING—“ Well done,
good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over
many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” Though one had gained five additional talents and
the other, two, both had doubled their money. The master rewarded them both with the same
statement, recognizing the quality of their service. Not only that, he changed the nature of the
reward that each received. They were put in charge of “many things” in the natural realm. They
were also invited to share in the spiritual realm of their master as partakers of his joy.
If we want to be able to enter into the joy of our master we have to use wisely the talent—the
personal capital—that God has given us. Our greatest asset is not money, or our singing ability,
or our financial acumen. It is the Holy Spirit within us. He is there to help us develop our full
potential in God. In a sense He is taking a risk. He is risking that we will perform to our full
capacity and use everything we are for the greater glory of God. He tells us to go to the poor,
remember them, support them, take care of them. He tells us to remember His storehouse, tithe
to the church, make offerings. He literally directs our use of capital. He says, “Use the talents I
have given you. Use your capital. Take risks, Trade. Listen to My counsel. And you will
prosper.”
You are no burden to anyone but a blessing to all. If you use your capital well, you end up
not giving God some percentage of your income, but 100 percent of your being. This is really
the highest use of the capital God has given you. Like the slave who was given five talents, you
are not your own man, you are the property of your master (the Scriptures tell us we were bought
by God with a price of Jesus’ blood). Your talents are not yours, They are given to you by him.
Your job is to cooperate with God’s plan for your life, using whatever amount of personal capital
you have for his kingdom’s sake by properly applying both the natural and spiritual laws of this
life. From this perspective, capital and its use are patently part of God’s plan. Among all the
other things God requires of you, free your mind to think of business in a godly way and you too
will be welcomed by Jesus as a good and faithful servant.
CHAPTER 33
Material Prosperity: An Integrated Plan
William Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player who
struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot. Full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing.” This is an incredibly hopeless view of man’s place in the
universe yet it is the way millions of people unconsciously live out their lives. They get to the
end of their days and ask, “What was the point of it all? I worked and worked and worked and
I’ve got nothing to show for it.”
The godly man looks back on his lifetime and sees it as a time of accomplishment, joy and
preparation for a glorious eternity. The glow of godly satisfaction is even warmer and brighter in
the man or woman who has practiced what I call the “Integrated Life Plan.” This person can see
a constant stream of increase and development over the years. Certainly he experienced some
setbacks but he overcame them and continued on. He achieved the goals God had placed as faith
pictures in his heart. ACHIEVED. That is the hallmark of his life. He is not anxious for
tomorrow because he did his work well yesterday and is following through today on a long range
plan that will serve him until he comes into his Savior’s presence.
The integrated life plan takes into account every area of a man’s life. I have already touched on
the emotions, the mind, the cleanliness of body and soul. Now I am going to treat the economic
area. Our theme scripture in 3 John 2 says, “I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in
good health, just as your soul prospers.” The way to true prosperity is practicing all these
elements harmoniously. If you don’t have money, you will worry. You will be anxious about
tomorrow, and that state of anxiety could affect your physical health. If you have money, but
haven’t learned to govern your soul, you will find yourself frustrated, lonely and empty. Now
however, you are bringing your will, mind, and emotions under the Holy Spirit’s control and you
want to know how to go about applying biblical principles in a practical way to the economic
side of life. What follows is a brief sketch of the integrated life plan. You can develop it to suit
your particular needs with the help of the specific information I will present in succeeding
chapters.
1. You must master a skill, profession or business. You have to have something to give.
You can do this by going to school, by personal study or correspondence courses, by
apprenticeship, or by practice (the school of hard knocks).
2. You have to go to work. Even in times of high unemployment if you have something to
give and you know that God is guiding you, you will eventually find a job if you persist
in looking and if you have an eager face. By an “eager face” I mean that you
communicate by word and expression that you want to work and that you are going to do
the best possible job for the man who hires you. Go with the attitude, “I am here to
work.”
You might get turned down, but go back in a week or two and tell the prospective
employer the same thing, “I want to work.” Put your emphasis on the word, “work”. Go
back to all the places that have turned you down until the employers get the idea that you
really do want to work. There are millions of people who want jobs. They want
paychecks, vacations, health insurance, job security and pension plans. Very few people
want to work so when a possible employer clearly understands that you really want to
work, he will make room for you.
Above all, do not remain unemployed. A friend of mine—Calvin—recently switched jobs.
As it turned out his new position as a salesman didn’t bring in the amount of money he
needed to round out the family budget, so he quit. He went out looking for a job in line
with his family’s needs, but could not find anything in that pay range. The months passed
as he used up his savings. Now he was to the point of having to borrow money.
I asked him, “Do you mean to tell me there are no jobs available?”
“There aren’t any jobs I can afford to work at,” he said. “They don’t pay enough. I need to
find something that pays me enough to live on.”
“Calvin, you can’t afford not to work. Maybe you will make peanuts accepting the kinds
of jobs that are currently available, but peanuts are better than nothing. Take what you
can get, and when something better opens, switch over.”
Calvin’s problem is a common one. People don’t want to accept less than what they think
they need, or what they think they are worth. This is fuzzy reasoning. The man who
wants to be prosperous starts where he is at. He works below the market value of his
talents if that is all that is available, or if that is where he can learn or polish a skill. If he
shows his diligence, resourcefulness and eagerness to work it won’t be long before he
will find something better, perhaps with the same employer who started him with a low
salary. Meanwhile, he will have gained valuable job experience. Opportunities open up to
those who prepare themselves for opportunity.
3. Establish a budget. Unless you put limitations on your spending and channel your money
into covering your essential needs you will never have enough. In the next chapter I will
outline what I call the 10-10-10-5-65 Budget. This includes equal percentages for church
tithes, investments, large purchase, plus a five percent offering to the poor or to a special
church or charity project, and 65 percent of the family income to living expenses. These
percentages can vary according to income. A person with a high income would naturally
want to put more into tithes, investments and into helping the poor and needy.
In the beginning you will probably have to discipline yourself. Shop for the bargains and
wait until you have the cash to pay for something (the rationale behind the “large
purchases” fund). Don’t run out and buy a car on payments because you think you need a
vehicle. Put away a percentage of your income (which can earn interest in the bank or
enlarge investments) until you have enough to buy an inexpensive and reliable used car.
One of my college professors told me years ago, “The difference between a man ending
up with money or ending up flat broke is who pays the interest.”
Stay within your budget, and pay cash. When you have money in your hand you can
bargain with store owners. They know that if they can get the money today they can use it
to do more business. They will be willing to give you a discount on the stated price. If
not, go where you can get a discount. And don’t hesitate to buy used goods as an
excellent way of extending your budget. Often well built used furniture, even after you
have paid to reupholster it, is cheaper than the flimsy new furniture most often available
today.
4. Purchase good insurance. If you are a young person you can purchase a million dollars
worth of ordinary life insurance for an extremely low premium. The older you are when
you buy the insurance, the higher the premiums will be. Likewise, buy health insurance.
Get a policy that has a deductible clause or you will have to pay a very high premium and
might fall into the tendency to visit the doctor for every little discomfort. If you are
married, your medical insurance should cover your family, both present members and
future.
5. Begin an investment program with as many tax shelters built in as possible. One of the
very few real ways to prosper is to become part of some income-producing equity: that is,
become owner of something that generates money. Putting your money in the bank to
collect interest is not income-producing equity. Remember the bank’s business is to use
its depositors’ money to lend to other people who are engaged in business. You might
have to start out by saving some money in the bank, but as soon as possible get it into an
investment where you are making the profit on your money, not sharing it with the bank.
If you don’t intend to go into business personally (or even if you do), the best way to
build up income-producing equities is through owning stocks in stable, well-managed
companies or by putting your funds into certain kinds of real estate.
6. Sit down (with your spouse if you are married) and work out a budget now—one that is
based not on what you think you need to live on but on the nature of your long-term
goals. Include each one of the five points I have discussed here. Do not fall into the trap
of saying, “This is how much we need to live on. Now let’s see how much we have left
over for other things.” Start with your tithe. You must first honor God. Then set aside an
amount for investment and for large purchases (car, refrigerator, stove, etc.) and
insurance. When you have done all that, you will know how much you have to live on.
Instead of an uptown three-bedroom house it might mean renting a studio apartment.
Instead of eating meat or poultry every night with supper, it might mean making do with
grain and vegetable casseroles. Instead of the latest fashions, it might mean some bargain
hunting for clothes on the clearance counters or in the thrift shops. So what? In ten or
fifteen years you will be in a prosperous position whereas those who started out with you
but who didn’t sacrifice to make investments will still be in the same place. They may
have a house full of consumer goods and the latest clothes, but there won’t be anything
substantial behind the exterior show. You, on the other hand, will be poised for an
exponential increase in your financial worth. Let’s look at some simple figures. If you
could save $100 this year, save $200 by the end of the second year, double that to $400
by the end of the third year, then $800, $1,600, $3,200, $6,400, $12,800, $25,600,
$51,200, and so on doubling your money each year, you’d find that in 16 years you
would have nearly 3.3 million dollars.
If all you did was save $500 per year at a very modest market rate of 10 percent at the end of
10 years you’d have $8,765.58. If you didn’t add another penny to that mount, but let it increase
at the 10 percent rate it would be worth $22,735.66 at the end of 20 years and $152,954.03 at the
end of 40 working years. That is not a bad nest egg for an initial investment of $5,000 over a 10year period. Just think if you would continue saving $500 a year during the entire 40 years. Or if
you’d save $1,000 a year, or $2,000. If you started at age 22--fresh out of college—and put the
latter amount into an account with 10 percent yield you would be a solid millionaire at the
retirement age of 65.
These figures are proof positive that even a working man who does not do anything more than
put his money into high interest-bearing accounts over the long term will become a wealthy man.
Happily, the economic principles in this book go far beyond the relatively small gains possible
through collecting interest. As you learn and apply them, you will find yourself ultimately free
from bondage to financial fears and woes—free to serve God in whatever direction His Spirit
leads you.
CHAPTER 34
Your Budget Can Help Make You Wealthy
“Hard work and clean living don’t add up to riches.”
Does that statement seem false to you? Doesn’t it seem that if a man applies himself to his
work and steers clear of moral pitfalls, shady dealings and gross expenditures, he will end up in a
good financial position? The answer is unfortunately, no. There are millions and millions of
honest, hard-working poor people who are not even remotely close to economic freedom because
they don’t realize there is more to building wealth than hard work and moral living. Let me
explain it this way: A commonly taught definition of work is that it is the expenditure of energy.
Let’s take our hypothetical man who sits out in his backyard all day pounding nails into boards.
At the end of eight strenuous hours he has now driven thousands of nails into the wood. In the
sense that expenditure of energy is work, he has indeed worked. But he has rendered no useful
service and therefore has not accumulated any capital despite all his efforts.
In a similar way many people live their lives in such a way that despite all their hard work they
might as well be hammering nails into boards. They unknowingly misuse their God-given capital
assets. A typical example is Rick Jackson. He went to junior college for two years before getting
an office job in a large department store. He lives in a nice neighborhood, his house is
comfortable, his wife and two sons are well-dressed. He is an honest, capable worker who is
now assistant chief of the credit department of a large department store. If you ask him about his
socio-economic status he will tell you without hesitation, “I am middle class.” He will tell you
his parents are middle class too. There are just a few details he has left out. His middle class
parents, now retired, aren’t living on any investments. They own a modest home, but they
depend on social security. Rick himself, in spite of a house full of consumer products and two
late model cars in the garage, is in debt to the local bank, a couple of financial companies and
several credit card companies. He has no investments and very little savings.
Question: Is Rick Jackson prosperous? The answer is that he ought to be, but he is not. He
just LOOKS prosperous. His cars cost him too much. He bought a color television because his
kids wanted it. His wife badgered him into getting a larger three-bedroom house. Appliances,
car and house payments keep him on the thin edge of insolvency. He is, in fact, like most of the
people whose credit applications he processes at the department store—he keeps paying his bills
so he keeps getting credit and he constantly stays in debt. He is in a consumer rat race and is
manipulated by an outside set of circumstances. He needs to get together with his wife and say,
“From now on we are not going to be controlled by what the world tells us we should have.
We’re going to determine our priorities in life and allocate our money to fulfill them.”
This is where the 10-10-10-5-65 budget plan comes in. I have already talked about laying out
life goals and working with unity groups as essential elements in developing prosperity, and I
have referred to this budget. Now I am going to detail how you can manage your income—no
matter how small or large—in such a way that you will be free from the pressures of debt and
worry and you will enter into the liberty of providing for your future economic independence and
for an inheritance for your children’s children.
The first part of my integrated budget plan is God. You must honor Him with the FIRST fruits
of all your increase. Non-Christians don’t even think of this divine law but many Christians don’t
practice the 10 percent tithe either. Therefore they rob themselves of one of God’s greatest
promises for economic provision, “’Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may
be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of Hosts, ‘If I will not open for you
the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need.’” This does
not mean you should give God some of the money you have left over after you have paid the
bills. It means the first thing you do when you get your paycheck or any other income is to give
10 percent directly to the Lord. Further, “to the Lord” doesn’t mean give to poor people, your
favorite Christian charity or to the church building fund. It means to God. His depository for
tithes is the local church. Make sure you recognize God first in all your financial matters.
Secondly, you must lay aside a portion for investment. At the beginning of his life a man has
to work for his money; by the end of his life his money should be working for him. Most people
at least dimly recognize this but they are waiting for some big score like an inheritance. They
don’t realize that a few dollars laid up on a consistent basis over a long period of time can
produce fantastic results (see Chapter 33). Blindness is that people just don’t want to scale down
their living standard. They feel they have to maintain a certain exterior appearance or they will
lose status with their neighbors. The pressures to not put any money aside are tremendous.
Many years ago during the “cabbage patch doll” craze I saw case after case of families that not
only spent more than $50.00 for each doll but then laid out additional sums for accessories—all
because the peer pressure on their children was transferred to the parents. The question was not
whether the children needed the dolls or if the toys were worth the price in terms of material and
workmanship as compared to other dolls on the market. The subliminal message was: Buy that
doll or your child will be deprived and rejected. When the pressure is not a doll, but the latest
model car or a huge new HDTV plasma screen or a bigger house in an upscale neighborhood the
results can be disastrous for any investment plan. This can be sacrificing the future for present
gratification.
To put off for the future those purchases which hinder the development of an investment plan
requires real discipline. After living the first part of my life as a slave to erratic spending habits
based on what I thought I needed to be happy at that given moment I decided to train myself to
put aside 10 percent of my income for investment. I was already giving a 10 percent tithe to the
Lord and had budgeted an additional five percent for offerings (which I will discuss later) so
when I set aside 10 percent for investment I suddenly found myself very limited in what I could
spend for enjoyment—restaurant dinners, better clothes, diversions, etc. This investment money
was not savings for vacations or for a new car, or any such thing. It was money my wife and I
decided we WERE NOT GOING TO SPEND but invest in stocks, businesses or properties. Yes,
our immediate standard of living took a nose-dive. That same thing is going to happen to you
when you switch to an integrated life plan and the budget I am detailing here. The saying goes,
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” In this case, the cake is investment money, and the
amazing thing is that as you wisely use it, you will have more cake, then more cake, and you will
eventually reach the point where you actually can have some cake and eat some too. For the
moment—unless you are one of those rare persons already on a strict budget—you will have to
suffer a bit of status starvation.
Closely coupled with taking this step is arriving at a definition of a reasonable standard of
living. Many Christians who heed the Bible’s teaching about not getting in debt don’t pay
attention to laying up for the future except to put a few dollars aside every week for some kind of
savings plan. Basically they spend what comes in. If the husband gets a good raise on the job
that extra money does not go into investments. It goes into “bettering their living standard.” If
they had braided rugs they now have wall to wall carpeting. If yesterday’s car was an old Chevy,
now it is a new Buick (remember the restaurant ad, “You deserve dessert.”) When you begin my
budget plan you will most likely find yourself OUTWARDLY living a little lower on the
standard of living scale. This temporary period of adjustment will change as your investments
begin providing you with income (I’ve talked about this somewhat in Chapter 25). Once you’re
prospering you will be able to maintain a godly standard of living (not a “reasonable” one, which
for some people just means more and more) that comes through prayer and a dedication to put
the needs of the Body of Christ before personal status or comfort.
The third step in the budget is to set aside 10 percent for what I call, “Big ticket items.” If you
thought setting aside 10 percent of your income for investments was difficult, you may find that
this portion is even more difficult because it can mean long-term deferral of major necessary
purchases. Happily, once you’re on this plan for a time your needs will come into balance with
your available cash for purchases. The big ticket account works like this: Instead of going out
and buying, for instance, a washer and dryer on time you wait until you have enough money in
your big ticket account to pay cash. There are various reasons for this. The first is an observation
from one of my college professors. He said, “Many times the difference between whether you
end up poor or wealthy hinges on who pays the interest. If you are in the habit of paying interest
for all purchases, you will end up poor. If you are in the habit of receiving interest or dividends,
you will very likely end up with a very positive financial picture.”
The obvious way to avoid paying interest is to pay cash. That means no more “Charge it,
please” transactions when you want that new lawn mower, fishing rod, dress or whatever. Most
credit card finance charges add up to a minimum 19 percent interest per year. The same is true
for “bill consolidation” loans at finance companies. Car loans can be a little cheaper, but not
much. Now suppose you calculate the money the washer-dryer combination will cost you per
month on a time payment plan. Instead of buying the appliances, you put an equivalent monthly
amount in a money market account or buy mutual fund shares (depending where your money
will make the most profit at the time). Now you are the one who is receiving interests or
dividends. By the time you have saved up the purchase value of the washer-dryer you not only
have the cash value, but also have the interest the company would have charged you, plus the
amount you gained from your investment. That is wise buying!
Now comes the next reason for the big ticket account. Most expensive items actually have
three prices. One is the stated cash price. Another is the time payment price. The third is the
negotiable cash price. Most often the stated cash prices is the basis for the finance charges and it
is generally very favorable to the seller, who assumes that the man who has to buy on credit isn’t
in all that good of a bargaining position. The negotiable price is the one you arrive at by offering
cash on the spot (merchants actually prefer cash to credit card payments because card charges
COST THEM money, and because they have their money immediately for restocking or other
expenses) and then bargaining with the seller. You are now the one with the leverage and if you
don’t like his deal you can go down the street. He knows that too. Don’t hesitate to drive a hard
bargain whether you are paying $100 for a blender or $35,000 for a pickup. You have the
advantage because you have what the seller wants: a sale.
The third value of a big ticket account is that you insulate yourself from spur-of-the-moment
or rash purchases. Some people buy items on sale that they really don’t need just because they
can’t pass up a “bargain.” If you are putting your money into a special fund you won’t be as
tempted to rush out and buy anything that seems like a good deal. Your big ticket items are
budgeted and you time your buying in such a way that you wait for the sales and special offers
before you buy. Train yourself to think, “There is no rush. I can wait for the best price.”
I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t use credit cards. Where buying something with a credit
card won’t affect the price one way or another, and where you have the money already in the
bank, you are just using your card as a convenience. You have the full INTENTION and
CAPACITY to pay your charges at the end of the month, thereby avoiding finance charges. So
used, credit cards save you the trouble of having to carry around a lot of cash and the fact is that
many merchants who accept credit cards have already built in a cushion that covers their cost of
processing the charges. In other words, if you shop where credit is accepted you are most likely
already paying a small percentage for credit whether you use it or not. You can use credit cards
for the “cash back” or “airlines miles” incentives as long as you never pay for the credit but use
the card to your advantage.
A last consideration about big ticket items is that your vacation fund should be in this account,
plus money for education—books, technical courses, maybe even enough to go to a trade school
or to college for a semester. You always want to continue developing your knowledge of
specialized subjects that will help you to be both a better investor and a more skillful worker.
The basic framework for these ideas came to me after reading a book by George S. Classon
called the RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON. I recommend this book as an introduction to budget
planning. One of Classon’s basic tents is that every man should pay himself a part of the wages
he earns—the 10 percent I recommend as investment money. When told that this was the secret
of wealth one of the characters in the book says in essence, “That’s crazy. My paycheck is the
part I pay myself.”
The wise man’s response is “You’re foolish to think that your paycheck is paying yourself.
That money goes to the butcher, the tailor, the grocer, the shoemaker—to everyone who supplies
you with goods or services. You actually pay yourself nothing. You give all your money to other
people to cover your cost of living.”
The solution is to lower your cost of living. Unless you control your expenditures, they will
control you, and you will end up with nothing in reserve. From a Christian perspective you have
to learn to live on 65 percent of your income. This means 10 percent each for tithes, investments
and big ticket items, plus five percent for offerings. The 65 percent is for your daily necessities.
“That’s impossible,” you argue. “And now you’re talking about that five percent for offerings.
Doesn’t the tithe cover that?
First, living on 65 percent of your income is not impossible, just difficult in the beginning.
Second, the five percent for offerings is not part of the tithe. The tithe is God’s. It has nothing to
do with you. It is not your part to say personally where it should go. It goes to your local
congregation to be disbursed to cover the needs of church workers, the building and the
congregation’s programs and donations. The five percent is your personal involvement in
providing for the poor, orphans, widows and for your personal Christian outreaches like
evangelism and missions. Actually, this amount is just a start. As you prosper, you should
increase your giving, not your standard of living. For example if you make $45,000 a year now,
the five percent is $2,250. If your income increases to $60,000 your disposable income would
increase from $29,250 to $39,000. My premise is that instead of spending all that money you
should add a larger quantity to your investment fund and a larger amount to your offerings. You
could raise both offerings and investments to 20 percent and still find yourself with $33,000 for
daily expenses, not to mention the increased amount for big ticket items. If your income rises
even more that offering percentage should grow larger and larger. Your money is not yours to
spend as you please. Beyond the reasonable amount for living that you need as a good steward of
God’s riches the rest should be invested wisely in His kingdom.
Of course, if you are manipulated by mass advertising, pride and your neighbors’ opinions,
you will always need better and bigger and more expensive. Put all that aside and try living on
65 percent of your income. Here is a very simple way to start: List all the regular areas of
expenditures: Food, clothing, gasoline, car maintenance, housing, schooling, insurance, petty
cash, etc. Then decide how much you need for each per week, and put that amount in an
envelope with the appropriate title (“Food,” “Transportation,” “Etc.”). Make a firm rule not to
borrow from one envelope to cover the deficit in another. Learn to live within your budget.
When I started I added up my yearly income, divided by 12, and divided again by 4.3, because
there are really a few days more than 28 in all months except February. If my monthly rent was
$430.00 I divided by 4.3 and came up with an amount of $100 from every weekly paycheck that
went into that envelope (though the envelope could just as well be in a checking account). I did
likewise in every other area.
I used to like to go for a Sunday drive with my wife after church. After we established our gas
budget, it wasn’t always possible.
Sometimes she would say, “Let’s go for a drive.”
It might be a Thursday morning, and I’d look into the gas envelope and find there was only
$16.00 left, and a quarter of a tank of gas in the car. “Sorry, Honey, but we don’t have enough
for a drive. There is barely enough gas money to finish out the week.”
“We could take it out of the food money. I have some extra.”
“I’d like to, but we agreed not to do that.”
Those adjustments were hard, but making them opened the door for prosperity to us. We
began to dominate our finances. You have to be especially firm in this area if you don’t work on
a fixed income. By fixed income I mean that you know how much you are going to make every
week (exclusive of overtime) and you plan accordingly. A non-fixed income is one that depends
on sales or other factors beyond your control. The temptation is to spend big when you have a
big week and then suffer when you don’t make sales or when clients are slow in paying. The
solution is to average your income over a long period and adjust your living standard to the
average inflow. If you have a toy business and set up your living standard on the basis of net
sales income for the months of September through December, you might find yourself broke and
in debt in March. On the other hand, if you base your 65 percent on the average or on one of the
lower months, the extra money in the high months will serve for investments or business
expansion.
Let’s say you are starting out at the high point of your business year. You are a house painter
and most of your income is generated from spring to fall, with a peak period in summer. Your
net income in July and August is $7,000 a month. That is no basis for a budget.
Picture yourself in December. It is raining and cold, and nobody wants you in their house
painting during the Christmas season. Your income drops to $2,000-- not even enough to cover
household expenses. After averaging out your yearly income you find that your net income is
about $4,000 a month, so you set your budget on that basis. You put the extra money from July
and August into investments, and when you hit the low points you take out what is needed to
meet the needs. Your crest income provides the reserve for your ebb times and perhaps some
extra investments. This way you are always in a stable economic position and your budget runs
smoothly.
The question now is, “How do you divide up the 65 percent among the different needs?”
Among the first concerns is housing. According to an old rule of thumb you shouldn’t spend
more than 30 percent of your AVAILABLE income for shelter. If your 65 percent adds up to
$2,600 that means your house should cost about $780 per month.
“You can’t get much to live in at that price,” you observe.
I agree but I ask, “Do you want to set aside money for investments or not? If so, you may
have to scale down the style in which you have been accustomed to live. There is, however, a
way around a low sum available for housing, and that is to buy a home and use part of your
investment money for payments. Just make sure you avoid the biggest pitfall in home buying,
which is trying to buy your dream house the first time around. Because of my background as a
real estate broker many couples come to me for advice in home buying. A typical case are Joel
and Wendy. He works at a chain supermarket and has possibilities of advancement. She is a
housewife with young twins to care for. His 25 percent for housing adds up to a little more than
$700 a month. They located an apartment they like in the $125,000 range.
“It’s not our dream” Joel explains, “but it is nice.” Three little bedrooms, a bath and a half.
And it’s close to Wendy’s folks.
“Great,” I say “How much are the monthly payments?”
“With taxes and insurance and everything, around $1,250 a month,” he replies.
“That doesn’t leave you much to live on.”
“No. But the apartment is really nice. It’s an investment.”
“Not if you can’t make the payments and lose it,” I reminded him. “What happens when you
need an appliance? Or some emergency comes up?”
“Well....”
“I’ll tell you what. Forget about a nice house. What you need is shelter. You have money
saved up for a down payment. Find a rundown house that is fixable and buy it. You don’t want to
go much over $850 a month in payments right now, and you want a house that the both of you
can work on in your spare time. That will increase the value. When it’s all prettied up, sell it for
a better house that also needs fixing. By the time you have been through a couple moves you
will have enough equity built up to buy yourself the kind of house you really want.”
Does it really matter if you live in less than your ideal house for a few years if lower rents or
payments will help you speed you along to the fulfillment of your overall life plan? Abraham
Lincoln reportedly said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
You will find you can do quite well in a decent neighborhood with an older home that needs your
time and effort in repairing. I know a couple who raised their two children for a time in a 26-foot
travel trailer because that was the kind of housing they could afford in terms of meeting their
long-range goals. It is better to put money into investments than into an inflated status in the
community. Nobody pays you for your own status and creature comfort; you are the one who has
to foot that bill.
A second consideration is clothes. This is another of those difficult areas. I was talking to a
young lady recently who had been away from her place of residence for awhile. She said,
“When I left, everyone was buying Sperry Topsiders (a kind of yachting shoe). I wonder, what
will be in next. The fashions change so quickly.”
So it goes. Women’s clothes change from season to season. Man’s over a longer period, but
the fact is that dated clothes look... well... dated. In terms of use, a jacket with narrow collar
won’t keep you any warmer than one with a long pointed collar, but when one is in style and the
other isn’t there are tremendous pressures bombarding you from the advertising media and from
peers to get in step. If you are going to keep your clothes budget within reasonable bounds, you
may have to seriously reconsider your image. For example, conservative and traditional styles
are slow to change, and thus are acceptable over a long period of years. Cloth known for its
durability makes more sense than flimsier materials that may only reflect this season’s designers’
whims. Lastly it is often wise to visit second hand or consignment stores. I once bought a suit for
six dollars that you couldn’t tell from a new one, and it fit perfectly. It was made of expensive
cloth, well tailored, and with a marvelous hang and crease. To top it off, it was already dry
cleaned and pressed. It might have cost $700 new. Of course such finds don’t come everyday but
when you do encounter them they can literally save you hundreds of dollars. Now I am not
saying you should only buy used clothing and used furniture and appliances, I am saying the
“Charge it, please” mentality can keep you in an economic stranglehold when a different attitude
could free your resources for income-generating investments.
This goes for food, which is another of the most important expenses in the family budget. It
pays to study carefully foodstuffs, their preparation, vitamin and mineral content, caloric value
and the right combinations of ingredients to increase useable protein and palpability. America
has become obsessed with processed food and that translates extra expenses for you and more
profits for the manufacturers. When I was a child many women baked their own bread, but
switched came to store-bought white bread because it was “convenient.” Now whole grain
breads rich in vitamins, minerals, protein and bran are finding favor. If you buy them in the
supermarket they cost more than the white breads. If you make them at home they come out
cheaper.
“When you consider time, it’s just not worth it,” a lot of people say.
My reply is “If you are a housewife, you intersperse the different bread-making steps with
other tasks. It is not that you have to devote your total time to baking from the time you start
mixing and kneading until it comes out of the oven. Not only that, you can listen to a Christian
teaching while you are working.
Many other foods are also better and cheaper when made in the home. Oatmeal, for example,
is much cheaper and healthier than the highly processed, expensive, sugared breakfast foods on
the market. Meat casseroles made with cheaper cuts are often more nutritious than the very
expensive fat and cholesterol-laden choice and prime cuts that Americans have come to like. I
could go on with example after example but the point is, “What is best for my family in the light
of our long term projections and overall health?”
If the woman of the house understands this she will make a super contribution to the family’s
prosperity. A dear old woman who I greatly respected was of this caliber. Her husband never
made much money in the depressed logging areas of northern California but as they neared
retirement age they had set aside enough money to fulfill their dream of going back to Arkansas
to buy a farm. I asked her how they managed to scrape together enough to buy a nice farm and
she smiled, “I learned to handle the food budget. A woman can throw more out the kitchen
window with a spoon than a man can toss in the front door with a shovel.”
If a woman learns to be a careful shopper she can dress and feed her family, heat the home and
take care of household needs on half—even a third—of what somebody who doesn’t spend any
time thinking about these things will do. In a sense this is what we saw in Proverbs 14:1, “Every
wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down with her own hands.” One woman
will fantastically spend, deplete her budget and not have enough to make ends meet. The
prudent one will live within the range of the money available and she will actually save some
and maybe use it to start a small sideline business.
A fourth major area is transportation. You begin working out its percentage of the budget with
a hard question: Do you need a car or not? In America EVERYBODY thinks he needs a car.
The fact is that for some people public transportation is the best alternative even if they have a
car. However, if you do feel you have to have a car look for basic solid transportation that you
can pay cash for. The newspaper ads that say, “Low, low financing!” are usually pure
fabrication. Yes, the finance charge is low, but the other four to 10 percent is neatly tucked into
the price of the car. You can’t afford to pay interest like that for a car. Nobody who has to buy a
car on payments can! Is this clear? Save enough big ticket money to pay cash for your vehicle.
Doesn’t look so good? So what? A nice paint job and no dents won’t get you across town to an
appointment. The bottom line is whether or not it is mechanically sound, gets good mileage, and
is safe to drive. If you are building up an equity in investments, you don’t have to worry about
the image your car gives you. There are plenty of people in the poor house who drive in fancy
new cars whose payments help make sure they won’t be changing addresses soon.
Don’t forget to include at least personal liability and property damage insurance in your car
budget, a weekly allotment for gas and a per-mile amount for the repairs and replacement fund. I
was involved in a business a few years ago that required a delivery vehicle. “Make sure you put
aside 75 cents for every mile that van travels,” I told my associates. “That’s part of our true
operating cost.”
“We can’t afford it,” one of the men said.
“Then we can’t afford to drive that vehicle,” I said. “Whether we like it or not, the tires are
going to wear out, the battery will run down, the engine’s will wear out. Sooner or later
something is going to break down and need replacing. If we are not laying aside the money now,
we won’t have it when we need it.”
Far too many people make the mistake of not considering all the costs. They have nothing
saved and nothing planned. When their car breaks down they panic. If they have to have a
vehicle they go out and borrow at a high rate of interest and pick up whatever car or truck they
find. That’s a very expensive and senseless way to operate. In the particular business I am
talking about we agreed to set aside a per-mile amount. Every time we needed tires, an oil
change, or minor repairs, the money was there, budgeted in. Finally, the engine blew up. It was
no big event. We had a good chunk of money available and quickly bought and installed a
guaranteed rebuild motor.
Going onto other budget items, educational expenses are important for families with schoolage children. True, you can send your children to public school but you will be exposing them to
the humanistic garbage that permeates secular education and to the company of children whose
values may very well corrupt virtues you’re trying to instill in your children.
Some people say, “Well, you can’t isolate your children from the real world.”
My answer to that is very brief. “Anything contrary to what the Bible says is true is pure
insanity.” The “real” world is crazy so there is no sense imitating it. Train your children in the
way they should go—after God’s heart. Then they will be able to fend for themselves. Don’t
hand your children over to the very worldly educational system that denies the truth of the
Scriptures if you can at all help it. Make a commitment to give your children a Christian
upbringing and shoulder whatever sacrifices necessary to educate them in Christian schools or at
home. If it is not possible cover them with your prayers and with home Bible and character
instruction.
Entertainment is a consideration in every family. I just recently saw a plaque that read, “The
only difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys.” Junior has a little toy truck and
his dad has a four wheel drive rig with a power winch and and roll bars that he uses once a
month or so to cruise around in the woods, generally in places where ordinary vehicles can enter
quite well also. Our hobbies can be quite expensive!
The thing to do is redefine entertainment. When people enjoy one another’s company that is
entertainment. Ask your friends over for a night of talking and games. Have picnics together.
You don’t need to go to expensive restaurants. And if you decide to get involved in sports, keep
in balance. There is a reasonable amount of equipment you need but you probably won’t run any
faster or better in a $250 jogging suit than in a sturdy ordinary one that costs $50. Entertainment
is really a state of mind. Even a child, with the proper orientation, can learn to entertain himself
with a good Christian book far better than with a tablet and expensive video games.
Utilities are an indispensable cost. Again, you don’t need lights blazing in every room of the
house, just the rooms you are occupying, and only then when you actually need the extra light. If
a 75 watt bulb can do the job, get rid of the 150 watt size. Turn off the water heater except when
you need it. Make long distance phone calls during reduced rate times. Turn down the
thermostat for the house heating system and wear a sweater in the winter. Open the windows in
the summer. If it seems too much trouble to economize on every little thing, try all the cost
cutting tricks you can think of as a TEST. Do it for two months and check the results against
what you were previously spending. I know one couple who saved a significant sum by putting a
time on their water heater provided hot water for the period of the day when the family planned
to take showers. Figure lighting, heating, and air conditioning costs on a monthly average based
on two or three years’ experience. You should be putting away utilities money in the summer to
take care of winter cost rises.
You should put aside a certain amount of money every month for medical and dental expenses,
including cost of insurance protection. I’ll talk further about what kinds of insurance in an
upcoming chapter.
Finally, you should set a certain amount aside for an emergency fund—unexpected medical
expenses, accidents, appliance breakdowns, trips to visit people in need of special help, any
number of things. This fund can be kept in a savings account. It is just there for when you need
it and if it gets too big you can transfer a portion to your investment program and make a
notation that it is available. This fund is analogous to the per-mile account you set up for your
car. You hope the engine never blows up but if it does you are ready for it.
I’ll go so far as to say that lack of foresight is one of the principle reasons why many people
who should have made good in their businesses ended up as failures. They expanded too fast
during boom times and didn’t set anything aside for the lean years; and believe me, there will be
lean years. All business runs in cycles: Behind every booming bull market there is a depressing
bear market. The Bible is very clear: “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the
simple pass on and are punished (Proverbs 22:3).” In economic terms this proverb means that
you should always maintain a long term outlook and be prepared for any reverses in the market.
You should learn to ANTICIPATE what is going to happen so that you can adjust your budget
and other finances accordingly. During a severe downturn in the economy you will be very wise
to scale your budget downward so as to not have to dip into savings or investments.
BUDGETING YOUR TIME
A young couple came to me for counsel recently. They had spent all the money they had
saved partly as a result of some unwise purchases but mostly because the husband (who
happened to be self-employed) wasn’t generating much income on his job.
“Ken’s not getting out and selling insurance,” his wife contended. “Ever since he moved his
office out of the house and rented space with a friend in an office building his income has gone
down.”
“What’s the reason?” I asked.
Diana replied, “He spends a lot of time talking to friends who come by to visit, or to the clients
of the guy he shares the office with. He doesn’t get out and sell.”
“Is that true, Ken?”
“You can’t just ignore the people who come by,” he countered.
“When the office was in the house, hardly anybody came by during business hours. Now they
have a social club,” Diana asserted.
As we delved into the problem it turned out that instead of applying himself to telephone
solicitations and personal visits, Ken was spending an inordinate amount of time socializing. He
made up for the lack of income by dipping into their savings, which caused great tension in the
house because Diana (whose earlier earnings had provided a good portion of the savings) was
worried about not having anything stored up for the future.
My advice was simple. It followed Diana’s recommendation: Move the office back to the
house, save the rent and other overhead, and get to work in earnest.
This seemed like the most logical and obvious answer but Ken actually resisted it at first. He
had somehow taken hold of the idea that the problem wasn’t that he was distracted by social
visits, but that prospective clients just weren’t buying insurance. At first, he couldn’t see that his
main problem wasn’t clients, friends or low income. His problem was time and its proper uses.
There are many good books—even some from a Christian perspective like Myron Rush’s
Management: A Biblical Approach--that discuss aspects of time usage but I want to outline the
most important considerations. Unless they are understood and applied to your integrated life
plan the best budget in the world will only be a theory.
Let’s start with the connection between time and eating. God makes some very clear
associations between food and work. In the Old Testament we find “Laziness casts one into a
deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger. (Proverbs 19:15).” And, “The person who
labors, labors for himself, for his hungry mouth drives him on (Proverbs 16:26).” The New
Testament says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10).” Lazy
people and people who don’t wisely budget their time will find themselves in a like position:
They won’t have anything to eat. Meal times are one of the chief areas where time is poorly
budgeted. Some people, especially those who are self-employed or who have great flexibility in
their schedules, tend to take very long lunch hours. There is a necessary use of eating that goes
beyond the matter of keeping yourself alive. You will note that some of Jesus’ most important
discourses were tied into lunches or suppers. This is because it is of paramount importance to sit
down with family and friends for a time of sharing over the dinner table. Such activity works
health into the body and the soul. Yet, to overextend these times can lead both to overeating and
to a reduced income from time poorly spent.
The same is true for sleep. There is a minimum amount that each man needs to maintain his
well-being. Psalms 127:2 observes, “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the
bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.” The Lord knows that each of us, as good
stewards of our earthly temples, has the obligation to maintain his health. That is why He gives
us sleep. In contrast, He does not want us to abuse this legitimate bodily need. Proverbs 6:9-10
informs us, “How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A
little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on
you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.” Make it a priority to find out how much
sleep you really need and train yourself to respect those hours as far as possible.
A third block of time that must be worked into your life is the time you will devote daily to
prayer, meditation and the study of God’s Word. I can’t give you a set figure. It is a matter
between you and the Lord but because this area is strategic to your success in every other area
you will do well to discipline yourself strongly. Don’t allow other considerations to erode your
time with God. Far too often prayer and Bible study are the last things a Christian does—if he
has time left over from all his other pursuits. God should be he Number One time priority in your
life. If He is not first nothing else will every work out right.
There is another area that often is sidetracked in busy schedules and that is time for career
study. You’d be very hesitant to go to a doctor who wasn’t up-to-date on all the latest techniques
and medicines. Then why expect an employer to promote you or customers to come to your
business if you are still working with the same knowledge you had when you started your career?
No matter what you’re doing you should keep abreast of changes and advances in your field of
endeavor and in related fields. In addition, because part of the plan for total prosperity requires
you to make investments you have to study financial trends and profit-making opportunities.
You my not be able to study on a daily basis (beyond reading newspaper reports) but you should
devote some time every week to magazines, journals, newsletters, books, thought, and planning
in your work and investment fields. If you don’t you will find yourself badly informed and
poorly poised to take advantage of favorable changes
What makes setting aside time for God and for study so difficult is the fact that our work, sleep
and eating hours are generally fairly well established. Where we have to cut down is in our
leisure activities although very few people like to sacrifice in this area. The tendency is to get
into watching television or into playing a favorite sport. I have known men who got so involved
in golf that instead of devoting time to he absolute essential areas I have just outlined they were
out on the golf course five and six days a week. Of course, I don’t want to give the impression
that leisure is not a proper use of time. It most certainly is! Just look at the world “recreation” as
“Re-creation.” Its roots are found deep in the Latin word that means restoration to health, based
on the idea to create anew or to refresh. From this angle, leisure gives us an opportunity to rest,
to change our daily pace. The Lord Himself rested after the six days of creation, giving us a
guideline for our own conduct. Though we all need personal times of rejuvenation, a good
portion of our leisure activity should be centered around the family and doing things together.
The bonds of love that are reinforced during such times are like a balm to the soul and sweet
balm to the spirit. I repeat, look for those leisure activities that you can enjoy with family and
friends.
In conclusion, don’t make your time budget so tight that you leave no room for adjustments.
Flexibility within a form (think of a duffel bag as compared to a wooden trunk) is much better
than rigidity in this case. You are to be the master of your time, not a slave to it. Just as you
budgeted your money, sit down and work out a time schedule. Work within its framework, refine
it, define it and as you consistently apply yourself to orderly living over a long period you will
find that you will hit a rhythm. You will take into account your obligations while leaving
yourself leisure time and flexibility to take advantage of unique opportunities—be it the chance
to make some extra money, take a weekend vacation or dedicate an extra week to serve the
church on some special project.
CHAPTER 35
General Knowledge, Specialized Knowledge
In Chapter 33 you saw that the first condition in the integrated life plan is to master a skill,
business or profession. This is specialized knowledge. People are always willing to pay premium
prices for it. Doctors, lawyers, journalists and people in skilled trades like plumbers and
electricians generally make more per hour than people in unskilled jobs like night watchman, gas
station attendants, and order fillers at fast-food restaurants. Many times it is not a question of
more innate intelligence on the part of the skilled worker but a result of specialized training.
Take the case of George Wilson. He worked in a lumbar mill operating a fork lift. It wasn’t a
particularly high paying job. The best a good operator could expect was job security when the
less skilled operators were being laid off, bonuses for work well done and small incentives for
lumber moved rapidly. George saw the ceiling and began making an inventory of the kind of
work that interested him, the abilities he had and the needs in the job world. He noticed that
welders in the mill made more money than he did. He thought he would like to be a welder so he
went to night school. When he graduated he applied at the mill and since he had a good work
record the company hired him as assistant to the mill welder. It meant an initial drop in pay but
George didn’t mind. He said, “I figured that once I got some on-the-job experience I could get a
pay raise. Then I’d aim for becoming the chief welder.”
He continued learning new welding techniques. When his boss retired five years later George
moved to head welder’s position. Meanwhile, he saw that while he was drawing a good salary,
there was even more money to be made doing custom work so he set up a shop in his garage. He
said, “I made $25 an hour working for the mill. I could almost double that working for myself.
All I needed to do was build up a reputation for quick and reliable work so I began working
weekends and some nights.” At first he charged average prices but he made sure his work and
service were above average. After awhile some of the small lumbermen and mill owners who
didn’t have big enough operations to pay for full-time welding began to send jobs his way. He
started getting known in the business. He also found out there is more to a welding job than
welding.
At this point George cut back his evening welding to go to night school again. He studied
business administration and bookkeeping. Then he noticed that there was some call for marine
welding in his area (he lived in a small Pacific coast seaport that was home to a large fishing
fleet and a port of call for lumbar carriers). He took a leave-of-absence from his work and went
to a diver’s school near San Francisco where he specialized in underwater welding. He knew he
could not support himself full-time with this specialization where he lived, but when the need
arose for underwater work he could charge top dollar because he was the only specialist for
about 200 miles in either direction. After training it was back to his job at the mill and back to
part time work out of his garage, adding marine welding to his accomplishments. A few years
later he felt he had the experience and clientele to launch his own welding shop. He worked out
of his garage the first year, then switched to a small warehouse, took on some workers and added
a side business of manufacturing metal gates and doors—both to keep his workers busy during
the slack time and to get lower prices for buying materials from suppliers. Within a few years he
was doing contract work for fishing companies, loggers, and small lumber mills, besides running
his customs operations and manufacturing metal products. In all, Wilson Welding and Metal
Products, Inc., became a solidly established and profitable firm. It all began by a man finding a
need and filling it with specialized knowledge.
The world is a constant pool of needs. Some of those needs are unrecognized at any given
time, like home smoke detectors, automobile computers, and disposable razor blades. In other
instances a man may recognize a need but simply learn to live without the solution. Other needs
are recognized and the people who can fill them are constantly in demand. In any event, finding
solutions to latent or perceived needs is not a question of general knowledge. For example, all
the knowledge in the world about geography, meteorology, history and oceanography won’t
transport you from Los Angeles to Singapore. You need to develop specific knowledge about
routes, costs, modes of transportation and then make decisions based on that information. In
other words, problem solving requires you to become specialized in your thinking. Solving the
problem of employment that will poise you for successful investments and ever-increasing
prosperity means you have to discover which needs in this world you can best fill and train
yourself to fill them. Like George Wilson and his welding business you might have to go slowly
from step to step, but you will arrive at your goal as you apply your specialized knowledge.
Let me use a purely spiritual example of the use of specialized knowledge. I am a minister of
the Gospel. I have a good general knowledge of the Bible and scriptural principles but if I expect
to preach a sermon that will transform my congregation’s lives I can’t ramble on about various
interesting biblical facts. I can’t generalize. First I have to choose a specific subject, find the
scriptures that illustrate it, check into their historical and cultural context, research my subject,
and then put all the elements together in a clear way, discarding all information that doesn’t bear
directly on my sermon. Finally I have to deliver it to the congregation in such a way that they
will listen to what I say, grasp it and put it into practice. I have focused my general knowledge
and made it useful to others through a specialized application.
Again, let’s say my house has a very leaky roof. My general knowledge about houses is not
going to solve that problem. I may say “Houses. Yes. They should have good foundations, walls,
a roof, and electric wiring. I know a little about all those areas.”
But do I know how to fix (or replace) the roof in the best and most economical way? Probably
not. That is specialized knowledge. I call in a roofer and he does the job.
How do I pay him? Why not with specialized knowledge? I may be a plumber and perhaps he
needs some work done, so we trade. Specialized knowledge for specialized knowledge. If he
doesn’t need any work requiring my skill, I give him the money I made using my expertise to fill
someone else’s need. This is essentially the process of turning my personal capital into cash for
trading purposes. Everything in this world comes down to whether or not we are going to supply
people’s needs, which is the only basis for HONEST prosperity. This is really reciprocity.
You have to see that jobs represent filling other peoples’ needs. The more valuable you can
make your services the better off you are. Not only is specialization economically wise, it is a
matter of necessity. You can’t know everything that needs to be known, you have to take the
gifts God has given you, mental, physical and emotional and specialize in that area that’s
uniquely yours. You may have to shift around a little at first, looking for the field that suites you.
Once you find it, dedicate yourself to it. Become an expert. The members of your unity group
can fill in the areas that are beyond your particular abilities, but which are necessary for your
complete success.
Lastly, some people’s specialty is guiding and coordinating specialists. We should all be able
to do this to some degree. For instance, I invest in the commodities market. This means I have to
depend on dozens of different specialists to help me make decisions about certain commodities
futures contracts. I have to know economic trends in the commodities market. I have to know
current and possible future prices, current and projected surpluses, projected weather conditions,
among many other things. For this I depend on specialists. My specialty is making the decision
about how much to invest in which commodity, when, and for how long.
One of the most extraordinary examples understanding specialization is Henry Ford, the man
who perfected the assembly line technique of manufactures. At one point in his life he was put
on trial. Part of the prosecution’s tactics was to prove that Ford was an unschooled ignorant man.
The prosecution lawyer asked Ford questions about his life, “Have you been to college?”
“No.”
“Do you know the date such and such happened?”
“No.”
“Do you know this certain person? Do you know this procedure? Do you know...?” The lawyer
kept asking isolated facts.
“No, No. No,” replied Ford. Finally he told the lawyer essentially, “Look. I have a dozen
buttons on my desk. If I want to know the answers to questions like the ones you are asking me, I
press one of those buttons for an assistant to come in. My job is to think. My assistants supply
the facts.”
Ford won the case. He had the specialized knowledge to get thousands of people to work
together harmoniously to produce cars. He had the ability to generate great sums of money, to
give ideas to engineers so they could work out the details and make his visions a reality.
You, too, will have to have a little of Ford’s gift in you to make your unity group work and also
to know where to find people with specific knowledge that you need to fulfill your faith pictures.
George Wilson realized he wasn’t going to teach himself welding so he went to where he could
find the specialized knowledge—at night school. Later, when he wanted to become an expert in
marine repairs, he went to a school that specialized in training divers in underwater work. The
more you can bring other specialists to apply themselves to equipping you or solving your
problems, the freer you will be able to develop those areas which are particularly yours. How-to
books can be very useful because in them specialists put down their findings in a practical,
workable form. Professors and researchers at universities are often delighted to help, especially if
what you are doing will in some way enhance their investigations (reciprocity, again).
Sometimes you have to hire consultants or advisors. Whatever way you gain your specialized
knowledge consider it an investment not an expense. You may never mobilize thousands of
workers and direct them toward highly profitable ends the way Henry Ford did but you will
develop the tools to become personally prosperous within the range of gifts that God has given
you. Apply yourself to honoring your own specialized abilities and making use of those others
can provide you.
CHAPTER 36
Plans and Planning
Part I: Back to Basics
“The average person is a failure.”
If that sounds too drastic a statement, consider that in many cases he doesn’t like his job
and really doesn’t have much hope he’ll find something better. He does what he has to do
begrudgingly, maybe voicing both his discontentment and his sense of being trapped with a
bumper sticker like, “I’d rather be sailing.” He’ll probably die broke or nearly so.
He’s a failure not because of his job, but because of how he perceives life. Edward Rowland
Sill wrote in his poem “Opportunity.”
This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud or in it raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince’s banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle’s edge
And through, “Had I a sword of keener steel—
That blue blade that the king’s son bears—but this
blunt thing-----! He snapped and flung it from his hand,
And, lowering, crept away and left the field.
Then came the king’s son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
The minute the failure changes his confession from “I’m here because I have to be. This is the
only job I could get,” to, “I’m going to be a giver and where I am right now is the best place to
start.” He’s on the success path. Man is not on this earth to complain about his circumstance and
curse his bad breaks, but to conform circumstances to his God-given faith pictures. “Triumph”
and “victor” should be his watchwords, and his foundation should be a well though-out and clear
plan of action based on the questions, “What can I give?” and “How can I best deliver what I can
give?”
Your first step in answering these two questions should be to take an honest inventory of
yourself. Get your family and friends to help you. In the chapter on developing an integrated life
plan I laid out the need to acquire a skill or profession. Later, I explained how this should be
based on your mastery of specialized knowledge. These should be key considerations in your
inventory. If you are married and you and your spouse are working on the inventory together you
should review your personal attributes and interests from the point of view of being an economic
team. You might discover you have an excellent service to offer the public. Your next stop is to
find a way to market it. Proceed step by step on the basis of two unalterable spiritual laws: “As
you sow so also will you reap,” and “Give, and it will be given unto you.”
Let’s use an example couple, Don and Sally. Up to now Don’s been working as an accountant
for a department store. He has only applied himself half-heartedly to his work. Sally is a
housewife. As they make an inventory of their abilities, interests, weak points, etc., Don
discovers that he really does like accounting. His on-the-job frustration does not stem from the
work itself but from a series of doubts about money: “I’m not getting paid enough. How can I get
a raise? How come the other accountants got raises and I didn’t? I wonder if there is a better
opportunity at some other company?”
“You know what? Sally says. “Why don’t you go into business for yourself.”
Don hesitates, “I don’t know if I can.”
“Let’s map out a plan and see if it works.”
They begin to list the attributes they think will help them in a small business. Don realizes he
is a self-starter. He doesn’t need a boss over him telling him what to do. Further, his practical
experience in maintaining financial controls, identifying unprofitable procedures, and keeping
books. These are skills he could offer his clients. “I think with some study I could take the
certified accountant’s examination. Then I could open up an office or maybe go into a
partnership. I think I have got something this community needs....”
After a little more investigation, Sally says, “We don’t have money to set up an office.”
Don defends their lack of a nest egg. “There have always been so many bills. The car broke
down I don’t remember how many times before we bought the new one. We had to replace the
furniture. That visit to my sisters...”
“Let’s quit kidding ourselves,” sally interrupts. “We just read this guy Durkin’s book on
success and he says that saving money is the result of a disciplined approach toward life. Maybe
we ought to revise our budget.”
After some figuring they discover that not only haven’t they saved any money, they’re $ 6,000
in debt. “If we are going to open a business we are going to have to get out of hock,” Don says.
For the first time he is thinking about putting off immediate gratification for future gains. “I was
hoping to get you a new washer and dryer, but I think we are going to have to make do for a few
years. Maybe we ought to trade in the car, and get something cheaper. We’d pick up a few thou
right there.”
After going on a budget and trimming out the excess expenditures that pulled them into debt,
they figure that in five years’ time, if Sally goes to work, not only will they be financially
solvent, they will have enough set aside to launch a business. They decide to study small
business administration together. Sally starts to learn secretarial skills and Don delves into
aspects of accounting that will benefit his future clients.
At this point, they are pulling out of the failure rut and heading toward prosperity. But not
everyone will take such positive steps. A lot of people are looking for a magic formula for
success. They want to make a million in real estate with no investment capital, and they want to
do it in six months. When they see that developing prosperity involves discipline, denial, and
hard work, they shy away. Others couldn’t care less. Their PLAN is quite simple. They aim to
retire at 65 and enjoy themselves until they die. Of course, when they get to retirement they find
that because they are not used to planning anything, time weighs heavily on them. They putter
around, watch TV or find other ways to distract themselves. Worse, they don’t have any money
to enjoy themselves. They spend it as it came in the previous 45 years.
Success--as Don and Sally realized--is a matter of stopping the failure process and
implementing the success process by building up a capital base with concrete plans and action.
Of course, any economic plan must fit into your overall purpose of glorifying God. This latter
must be the touchstone of your life. That is the point of the integrated life plan. You (or Don and
Sally, or anybody) cannot separate your financial life from your emotional, mental, physical and
spiritual lives. Each sector has to dovetail into the others in such a way that together they
contribute to your expression of the life of Jesus Christ. As you progress toward fulfillment of
this highest of all purposes you will become as free as your God made you to be. You will be
liberated from economic bondage and every other bondage.
But suppose you’re not oriented toward starting a business? You understand that you have to
be business MINDED. You understand the principles that move a George Wilson from driving a
fork lift at the lumber mill to directing a growing, profitable welding and metal manufacturer
company. You grasp what motivates Don and Sally to embark on a plan to start their own
business, but after taking inventory of yourself, you feel you are a blue (or white) collar worker.
Can you prosper? My answer is an emphatic, YES! For instance, a person working as a welder
at the same lumber mill where George Wilson worked decided that he wants to prosper also.
Tom Dalton sits down with his wife and they make their personal inventory. Neither has more
than a 10th grade education, and neither is very inclined to study (the reason they left high school
in the first place). Tom works on machinery maintenance, enjoys his work, and—including
benefits—makes a liveable wage on his semi-skilled job. Nancy has no outside skills, and with
four children, is not interested in looking for employment.
“What I have to give is my ability to do maintenance work at the mill,” Tom concludes. “I’m
going to stay put and do the best work I can.”
Nancy says, “Four kids is a full-time job for me. But I am going to increase what I’m doing
already. I’ll get the kids to help me and we’ll plant a bigger garden from now on and do a lot of
canning and food drying. I’m good sewer. I will sew as much of our clothes as I can. That will
help a lot.”
Next, they work out their budget, looking for ways to lower costs at home so that more of their
income can be diverted toward investments. Knowing he is not really investment minded Tom
joins a unity group with several men in his church. It turns out that his knowledge of machinery
helps a couple of them make wiser purchase of used equipment. In turn, the group helps him
channel his money into well-researched income producing investments. Tom and Nancy change
from a “taker” mentality to a “giver” position. Their long range orientation assures them that
they are on the way to prosperity and to discovering gifts they might not have discovered
otherwise—such as Nancy is doing seamstress work and Tom is doing spare time equipment
repair.
Part 2: Starting a Business
We’ve seen that it isn’t necessary that you become a businessman or product manufacturer to
be prosperous. We have also seen that even if you opt to be another’s employee you generally
have some skills that can generate money on a self-employed part-time or casual basis.
Furthermore, because you are involved in money transactions almost every day of your life it is
to your best interest to understand the elements of staring and operating a business. You are—as
you sell your personal capital of brains and brawn in the market place of the world’s needs—a
businessman or woman. Let’s support now that you are on a budget, you are disciplining
yourself, and you are trying to serve your employer rather than just collect a paycheck. What is
next? My suggestion is try out a simple part time business. This is a matter of producing or
buying something that your community needs and finding a way to deliver it to people at a
reasonable price.
“Oh, I could never do that!” might be your reaction.
I assure you that you can. You may have to stretch your mind a little, get used to the extra
effort, but the result will be a growing incoming-producing equity and a hedge against the time
that is surely coming when the world financial system collapses. If you have built up your assets
and have some knowledge of financial operations, you will be able to protect your family and
actually prosper during that period. In the Great Depression of the 1930’s those people who had
established their lives on godly moral AND economic foundations didn’t tumble into ruin. They
had the solid capital to take advantage of undervalued properties and to build up a greater equity
than ever.
I’ve helped many men and women into successful businesses over the years. As a minister I
have considered it vitally important that God’s people be equipped spiritually and materially.
The humorous adage, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s of no earthly good” typifies the kind
of person who comes out of a church where everything in life is spiritualized. The Lord did not
take us out of this world. We are not OF it anymore, but we are certainly IN it. As the master
told the slaves to whom he gave the talents, “Do business until I come for you.” As I have
counseled Christians in going into business I have tried to give them this balanced perspective,
and what follows is some of the practical wisdom that has helped them achieve their goals and
that will help you do so also. To clearly illustrate these concepts let’s use the example of Bill
and Sandra and show how they developed a workable business.
Forming their unity group was the first difficult step. They had already taken a personal
inventory, defined their goals, and started a budget. Now they convince friends that it is to all
their best advantage to form a club to discuss life goals and how to help each other achieve them.
Once this is accomplished, Bill tells his group, “Look, I really want to be in business for myself.
Sandra and I have been living frugally and saving our money. We are thinking about a service
business. What do you think?
The group starts thinking about Bill’s request, and because getting into self-employment is part
of others’ plans too, they begin researching magazines that spotlight different money-making
possibilities and the costs of setting up and operating them. They also read books that suggest
businesses and how to make them work profitably. After the group reports its findings, Bill and
Sandra feel that their choice is between carpet cleaning and a janitorial service. Had they chosen
accounting like Don and Sally, the basic process would still be the same. After checking out the
market in their community, they feel there are good possibilities for them in carpet cleaning. The
main work in janitorial service is at night and they felt night work—though lucrative if properly
bid—does not fit in with their family goals or with their church involvement.
The reason they chose a service business is because their primary expense is labor, not
expensive equipment since they don’t have much capital available. They find as they investigate
the community’s need for carpet cleaning that there is a general dissatisfaction with the quality
of the services available, a phenomenon also true in the janitorial service. Those already in those
fields are charging high prices and some have the attitude, “If you don’t like it, go somewhere
else.” The idea of giving to and serving customers is little in evidence.
The fact is that many service businesses are very easy to get into. Because of the low capital
requirements and generally easy-to-learn skills they attract many people. Those who do very well
are few. The difference between profit and loss is based precisely on the term “service.” Most
people get into business with the idea of getting something, not of giving. The man who is
oriented toward giving people their money’s worth, offering prompt response to calls, doing a
good job, guaranteeing the customer’s satisfaction and maintaining a friendly and courteous
manner will build his business even when others are undercutting his price structure. There is
even another step: When a man has more business than he can handle at a given time, he can
recommend other people who can do a reasonable job. This may seem like undermining his own
business.In reality it is a way to build goodwill with his customers and develop friendships with
other people in the field. These friendships might result in partnerships in the future, in
recommendations to a banker or supplier, or in a client sent his way when the person for whom
he is doing a favor is booked solid. A last possibility is that perhaps there is another person in the
same service. He is a good worker, but not a good manager. The sound manager arranges to give
him his overflow work for 40% of the sales price. Let’s say the worker charges $1 a unit. This
gives the manager a profit of 40 cents based on his ability to contract work and administrate it
well. Again, the principle is, “Give, and it will be given to you.”
Bill and Sandra next determine the market value of their service and project costs and income.
They decide on charging a standard square yard rate for carpets, and unit rate for furniture
calculated to be just a little below the top rate prevalent in the area. Why not a low rate? First of
all, they are going into business to make a reasonable profit while benefiting their customers.
Though they know others will be underpricing them, they feel that what they have to
offer…quality of service...is worth their asking price. They assume that once their customers test
the benefits of dealing with them, they will want to hire them again. Cheapest isn’t always best:
sometimes it is more expensive in the end. They understand that as long as their price is within
the norm they can build, not on the basis of price (because someone will always come along who
thinks that the way to build a business is to underprice everyone else to the point where it is
barely profitable to continue) but on excellence of service and customer satisfaction.
When customers sense they have been well treated they become like an organization of unpaid
salesman. They repeat their business and tell their friends and neighbors who are always on the
lookout for reliable businessmen. These referrals then become other “salesmen” and so on until
the market area is saturated with the news of the high quality service and courteous attention now
available. The man who develops a repeat clientele provides himself a steady income within a
market area, plus opportunities to expand into other markets either by geographically expanding
or adding new services such as going from carpet and furniture cleaning to upholstery repair to
custom draperies to interior decorating. The repeat purchase is the whole base of the service
industry, whether it be marketing of convenience items like fast food or disposable products or
dry cleaning and pressing pants and jackets (you might end up paying in dry cleaning two or
more times the cost of a suit).
Bill and Sandra finally start their business with an advertising campaign. They know that once
they have customers, they can offer them incentives like discount coupons on their next carpet
cleaning, and clientele-building perks like offering additional services at greatly reduced prices
(or free) if they bring in new customers. The trick is getting those initial customers and
stimulating volume that makes for a profitable operation. They have already set aside enough
money to cover their budget needs for six months so that if the business does not make a penny
in that time, they can still live without having to borrow. Very few people at any given point are
thinking about having their carpets cleaned. They have to be stimulated. This sounds like a
purely practical consideration, but like everything important, it has its basis in the Bible.
Jesus did not wait around for people to come and be saved. He went to them with His service
(healing and salvation), and later sent His disciples to proclaim the Good News. In one of His
parables the master even tells his servants to go into the highways and byways and COMPEL the
people to come in.
Taking their cue from biblical principles, SuperKleen (the name of Bill and Sandra’s business)
designs its advertising around the idea of presenting the community the good news that a
reliable, thorough, competitively-priced carpet cleaning business is ready to come to the
customer’s door to perform a free test to determine how dirty their carpets are, service their
needs, and offer auxiliary services like protective sprays that help carpets stay cleaner longer. On
their limited budget they decide the best newspaper advertising was in the form of a clip out “10
percent off” coupon in the local newspaper. Their research tells them that people respond better
to bargains and offers in the newspapers than to straight advertising. The bulk of their advertising
budget goes into flyers—again with a discount coupon. They hire neighborhood children
(supervised by Sandra) to distribute the flyers. They also develop a person-to-person sales
presentation and begin telephone soliciting, using the local phone directory. With the help of one
of his unity group members ho has training in graphic design Bill works up a “before and after”
brochure showing the benefits of SuperKleen’s services. These, he drops off personally to the
managers and owners of businesses and professions in his area and attempts to sell them the
service. The constant theme is “If it is carpet and upholstery cleaning you need, the answer is
SuperKleen—the specialists in preserving your investment in rugs and furniture.” Their idea is to
stress the uniqueness, the specialness, of their business.
This is basic merchandising. A short time back I was in Canada for a conference and found I
needed a certain item. I asked a man if he knew where I could purchase it and he replied, “Try
Simpson’s. If it isn’t there, it isn’t made.”
The man didn’t come to that conclusion independently. A constant advertising campaign had
inculcated that thought in his mind. Simpson’s specialty and good news rolled into one was,
“Shop at our store. We have everything you need.”
Where does that put the small businessman? At a disadvantage? Not at all. Like SuperKleen,
the small business has to develop its distinctive service image. For example, in response to
Simpson’s hugeness, Sam’s Sporting Goods might emphasize, “Why wander through acres and
acres looking for what you need, and then have to deal with sales personnel who don’t know
anything about the products or what they’re used for? If it’s fishing rods and reels you need,
Sam’s the specialist and he services what he sells.” The truth is that unless you have some
unique item protected by patents, somebody is already selling the same or similar products, and
more people will enter the field as time passes (and leave, too). What people come back to is the
person or company they perceive as both the expert in the field and the most reliable and
friendly. You have to help them through advertising and action to develop that favorable opinion
toward you.
By applying these principles SuperKleen begins to grow. Sandra manages the office out of a
room in their home, and schedules appointments in the most efficient way possible for Bill.
Between jobs Bill makes promotional calls so that he is always utilizing his time. The
temptation after they begin to turn a profit is to remove money from the business to buy things
they feel they need but they decide that everything that comes in above the family budget (which
includes investments in other than their own business) goes back into SuperKleen. Their idea is
to buy more steam cleaning equipment and another van. In two years they are able to make this
move. They hire a man to handle the new equipment.
At this point they have to study the labor laws and begin to pay social security and workmen’s
compensation taxes and collect withholding from their employee. There is always the temptation
to use this money, or to try to skirt the issue of getting involved in paying these kinds of worker
taxes. Bill understands that these axes, like the other taxes he has had to pay since beginning the
business, are the government’s money, not his to use. The self-employed man, and the employer
of one or 100 should always put taxes and withholding into bank funds set up for that reason.
This should be done every pay period without fail. Otherwise penalties and fines could cost more
money than the original taxes.
Bill also determines to make it a company policy to always pay his employee first at the end of
each pay period, regardless of any other consideration. This is modern application of the
scriptural injunction, “The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until
morning (Lev 19:13).” There is never to be any evasion, based on the scripture that says,
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution (I Peter 2:13).” All this
means is that Bill has to have a reserve of capital ready to start paying the employee even before
the employee brings in money. He also has to guard against circumventing the law as when one
prospective worker offered, “I’ll work for you, but to make it easier on the bookkeeping, just pay
me every week and don’t bother about the taxes. We’ll keep the wages between ourselves in
cash.” Many employers do this, especially those who hire illegal aliens, but God will not bless
law breaking, nor will the person who practices such fraud experience the peace of mind or
(perhaps) bodily health which are essential to total prosperity.
I speak this from painful experience. One year I didn’t pay my taxes. A man can come up
with all kinds of justifications. “I really didn’t make any money this year.” “I’ll get around to it
as soon as I have some cash on hand.” The second year my life was in disorder, the result—as I
explained earlier—of not practicing the Word of God. A few more years went by and I didn’t
file. With God’s help I finally began getting my life back together, but by this time I was so
afraid of what the government might do to me that I didn’t pay my taxes for eight years. Strange
things began to happen to me. Every time I heard a siren my stomach would jump. If I saw a
police car, I would get nervous. Whenever I heard of the fines and jail sentences convicted tax
evaders received, I’d get upset. I was getting to be a nervous wreck. I finally said to myself.
“Life isn’t worth living like this. I am going to turn myself in. If I go to jail, I go to jail.”
I went down to the IRS office and told the lady behind the desk that I hadn’t paid my taxes in
eight years. “What’s going to happen?”
“Just sit right there,” the woman replied. I though she went in the back to get the security
guards. Instead, she returned with eight tax forms in her hand. “Here. Fill these out and send
them in.”
She didn’t even take my name and address. I suppose she had seen people like me hundreds of
times before—frightened and nervous tax evaders.
I filled out the forms and got square with the government. The fear left me, and I was on my
way to true prosperity. Up to that point, the money I was making didn’t bring me any
satisfaction. Upset emotions were robbing me of all joy. Of course, the deeper question is
honesty in everything, not just in paying taxes. Now getting back to the story of Bill and Sandra.
SuperKleen declines to do off-the books arrangements with employees but as a matter of policy
pays all the taxes when due and makes sure employees always receive their pay—even before
the boss. Bill takes the idea of honestly and integrity a step further. Proverbs 11:24 says, “There
is one who scatters, yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due,
but it results only in want.” He offers his employees a profit-sharing plan. His reason is simple:
His employees are part of the reason for the success of the company. If he scatters the profits to
them, they’ll feel more involved in the business. After all, they earn their bonuses on the basis of
performance. It also behooves them to make sure the quality of the other employees’ service is
the best possible because the bad performance of one reduces the profits of all. In addition, Bill
realizes that if he withholds these profits from his employees, profits they might consider
rightfully theirs, they might not express excellence of service. Bill has heard about plenty of
cases of dissatisfaction employees who actually sabotaged their companies’ products or service.
Likewise, he maintains a strictly honest position before his customers. If he or his employees
make a mistake on a job he doesn’t cover the fact. He makes the necessary adjustments only with
the customer. Let’s say on a particular difficult sport removal on a pile carpet his chemical
removers leave a larger and worse spot than the original, right in the middle of the carpet. He
might pay off half the cost of the replacement carpet or offer some other form of restitution. In
the same way, SuperKleen policy is never to lie to a customer. If the carpet cleaner’s
appointment is for 11:00 a.m. and there is a delay, or the secretary has made a mistake, Sandra
calls and honestly explains the situation, and asks to be pardoned for their lapse. They always
make sure the customer receives something extra in such cases as a token of SuperKleen’s desire
to please. This is a form of reciprocity, just as sharing profits with conscientious employees is.
It is also reaping and sowing.
In the Bible there is the famous case of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. Jesus went to dinner at his
house and Zacchaeus was so moved by the Lord’s kindness and love that he suddenly said,
“Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of
anything, I will give back four times as much (Luke 19:8).” In meeting Jesus and recognizing
him as Lord, Zacchaeus’ whole life changed. Instead of trying to extract money from the poor,
he started to give to them. He offered to exceed law. Under Mosaic Law, a captured thief was
required to restore what he had stolen and one-fifth more. He began making positive moves,
taking honest action. The Lord forgave him and said, “Today salvation has come to this house.”
The message is clear: The way to deal with dishonesty, lying and cheating is with honesty and
integrity. Blessings follow in their wake. At the same time honesty sets an example. Proverbs
20:7 says, “A righteous man who walks in his integrity—how blessed are his sons after him.”
The honest man sets a standard that everyone appreciates. When people see that blessings follow
him, they too follow his example. His customers give him their repeat business and tell their
friends about him. His business is not only started, it is established.
Part 3: Staying in Business
Lots of people go into business every year. Most of them quit that same year. Government
statistics show that approximately 95 percent of small businesses in the United States will fold
up within five years, and 50 percent of them within the first year. Others go on for several years
before going bankrupt or closing down insolvent. If you are in business you have to constantly
think of two things: how to better your product and your service (including keeping abreast of,
and incorporating, new developments), and how to improve the profit side of your financial
balance sheet. Bookkeeping should start with the first purchase you make to set up the business.
Count your time too. It is your personal capital. If after a reasonable period you are not showing
a break-even status, sit down with your unity group and carefully assess the wisdom of
continuing. Some businesses require a long period of investment before they turn a profit, but
this is something you should consider beforehand and be prepared to finance.
If you have to borrow, what are you going to borrow against? And remember this: The minute
you borrow money you have a serious liability to another person or institution. Not only that you
don’t just own the amount you borrowed, you owe the interest. I have seen what should have
been successful enterprises go belly up because their owner couldn’t generate enough profit in
the build-up period to cover expenses and pay back the debt plus interest. The Bible says, “Owe
nothing to anyone except to love one another (Romans 13:8).” The reason is found in Proverbs
22:7, “And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”
I found that as I have expanded my businesses it hasn’t been necessary to borrow money (I’m
not talking here about a reasonable mortgage on a house or building). My plan is to turn profits
back into the business as the way to finance growth. By doing so, I learned how much discipline
is involved in saving money—a lesson not easily learned when you borrow someone else’s
money. I found—as in the example of George Wilson and the welding business—that it is often
best to start out part-time, perhaps with the wife’s help. If you maintain another job and turn
back whatever salary you would have drawn from the new business into expansion it is very
possible that you will have one or more employees before you take the step to enter full-time
yourself. This is a very prudent method, especially for young people getting their first taste of
business and economics. You have to take risks but it is best to keep them minimal.
At the beginning of an enterprise perhaps the wife can take care of the books but as the
business grows it probably will be prudent to hire a part-time accountant and—on a retainer
basis—a financial advisor. This latter person can study the balance sheet drawn up by the
accountant, evaluate your current and proposed moves in the light of the market and help you
decide how to channel your funds. He can help you with the “what if” questions. For example,
in a carpet cleaning business you might ask, “If I commit this much money to buying a new
steam cleaner and a van, and hire someone to man them, what will happen?” There are computer
programs based on “What if?” considerations. You can work up your own questions based on
these programs. You will still need direct human input, but instead of a financial advisor, your
unity group, using the computer read out and the accountant’s statements as a basis, can help you
with the decisions.
Keeping yourself informed of the financial position of your business will help you to keep
adequate funds available to cover salaries and bills for equipment and supplies. Many suppliers
offer cash discounts for early payment. You should take advantage of those discounts as often as
possible. You will telegraph to your suppliers that you are in a sound position. Then, if at some
point in the future you need special treatment from a creditor to take advantage of a powerful
opportunity, you will be well-regarded. On the other hand, if you are known as a person who
never pays early, you will be looked upon as a bad risk.
In the same way you carefully maintain good records, paying all bills promptly, keeping
constant track of profit and loss in the different areas of business, you must pursue excellence of
service. Your customers don’t owe you a living. Quite the opposite, they have favored you with
their business when they could have bought the same product or service from any number of
other establishments. To maintain their good will your service must be the best, your attitude
and those of your employees the most pleasing and your products or techniques must be state of
the art. Every detail of your business must be well thought out and executed. For example, my
friend Alvaro Torres runs two restaurants that he specifically designed to appeal to middle class
customers who were looking for a meal several cuts above the fast food quality, but still
reasonably enough priced to attract people who did not want to spend $20 to $30 per person.
There are many restaurants in his price range, but most of them don’t have any polish, or they
serve rather pedestrian food. Alvaro designed a pleasing decor, and a specialty menu of uniquely
named meat and chicken dishes with his own sauces and cheese fondues. His waiters are trained
to execute the tiniest details, like where to place the sugar bowl on the table, and how to balance
the lid on its rim.
“What’s the difference where the lid on the sugar bowl goes?” You may ask. “In fact why
even have a sugar bowl. “Why not use a dispenser or packets or wrapped cubes?”
Alvaro’s idea was to provide an elegant atmosphere at a reasonable price. Dispensers are more
in line with fast food restaurants and diners. Sugar packets speak of the usual run of restaurants,
especially the chains or locally owned ones that imitate them. A sugar bowl is stylish. The cover
on the bowl subconsciously speaks to the clientele that the food is protected until they are ready
to use it. When the waiter uncovers the bowl, and hangs the rim from its specially designed edge
before serving coffee or tea, he is saying without words, “I am here to serve you.” Lastly, the
rim fits vertically on the edge of the open bowl to save space. It doesn’t clutter the table. This is
just one detail and the psychology behind it. There are literally dozens, and Alvaro has trained
his staff to do them all. They know their job and tips depend on faithfully executing the details.
I might add the weight of all food sold is carefully calculated. Everything is calculated down to
the penny, and quality carefully controlled. The per-plate price is fixed according to expenses
plus a reasonable profit. There is no guesswork except in those areas where it is impossible to
guarantee long-term prices from suppliers because of fluctuating markets (but a cushion for
fluctuation is built into food prices). People come to Alvaro’s restaurants because they sense the
service is invariably excellent, the food is of consistently high quality (he does not try to “slip”
inferior cuts of meat to his customers) and the decor and atmosphere is that of a more expensive
establishment. Yet the price is what they’d pay for indifferent food and ordinary service at
another restaurant. The end of the story is that Alvaro does a land office business seven days a
week.
Now let’s make up a case—an unhappier one: Elwood’s Donuts makes the best donuts in
town and distributes them to restaurants and institutions. There is just one problem. Elwood has
a shoddy order-taking system. He keeps the orders in his head as they come in by telephone. So
when Mazie from the Dewdrop Inn calls for 15 dozen assorted glazed, five dozen cake, and two
dozen French donuts, he gets her order confused with Daisy’s Slide Inn. At other times there is a
miscount or an over billing or some other discrepancy.
Mazie gets the wrong order.. and says, “I wanted 15 dozen assorted glazed and you brought
me 20, and no cake. Never mind, I’ll take them today, but please get it straight tomorrow.”
Elwood does not get it straight tomorrow, and finally Mazie says, “The donuts are great, but
Elwood’s service is terrible. I’m going to have to find another supplier. I have enough hassles
without worrying about a couple dozen donuts.”
Daisy has the same problem, so she drops Elwood too, as do other disgruntled customers.
Elwood, instead of taking a hard look at his merchandising methods, starts complaining about his
customers. “I don’t understand it. Nobody’s got better donuts in this town than me. How can a
guy deal with a bunch of stupid people like that?” He has forgotten that those people were the
source of his support, the ones who were—in a sense—feeding his family and helping him lay up
a store for his children’s children. He would be far wiser to say, “These people aren’t my
enemies. If they’re complaining there is something wrong with my service. I’m going to ask
them what the trouble is and make the correction. They deserve the best PRODUCT and the best
SERVICE.”
Several years ago I was involved in a bakery business in Eureka, CA. We sold bread and
donuts. Our bakers had learned to make donuts in a dry climate, but on the north Pacific Coast,
the climate could turn from very humid to relatively dry to humid again in the same day. The
humidity changed the texture of the dough to such a degree that sometimes it absorbed the
shortening just right, other times partially, and other times it practically rejected the shortening.
Ever time we came up with a bad batch—either dripping with grease, or too chewy, or too
tough—the tendency was to market it anyway to avoid a total loss. The rationalization was, “We
can’t help it. That is how it works out sometimes.” Happily, we resisted that tendency because it
would have doomed our business. People want a consistent product. They don’t want good food
one day and bad the next. We had to find a solution, and after much experimentation we were
able to produce a consistently good product.
The great concert pianist and conductor André Previn was once asked why he practiced eight
hours a day. He said, “If I don’t practice for one day, I know the difference. If I don’t practice for
two days, my manager knows the difference. If I don’t practice for three days, my audience
knows the difference.” He knew one secret of greatness is constant attention to details. The
thought in anyone’s mind who offers a service to the public should never be, “This is good
enough.” It has to be, “This product is the best there is of what it’s designed to be.” Otherwise
someone else will come along and market the better product.
This brings me to the matter of always staying up to date in your area of expertise. For
instance, if a man is a doctor, the minute he leaves medical school he has to begin to study on his
own to upgrade his skills. This is because medical technology is constantly advancing, and what
was once an acceptable theory and practice is now different. If a doctor recommends to a patient
a treatment or medicine that was state of the art five years ago but which has now been
supplanted, the patient will lose confidence. How will he find out what is the latest? Talking to
other people, or seeing something in the mass media, or consulting another physician. “Old
Doctor Jackson is a little behind the times. He might be okay for tonsillitis, but I don’t think I’d
trust him with anything really serious.” And pretty soon Doctor Swanson, who has all the latest
computerized diagnostic aids in his office, has the town’s business.
The same is true in just about any other profession or trade. A welder might be very good at
straight iron, but if alloys start coming in and he doesn’t keep up, he finds his work more and
more limited. Maybe he loses his job security to somebody who has learned to handle the new
materials being used in manufacturing. The body and fender man who is used to working in
metal will soon loose out to the man who has moved into fiberglass and plastics, and who are
servicing the new unitized frames. The fact is that we live in a highly technical, changing,
competitive world where whole industries come into being or die overnight. How many
plasterers are around today? Ho many computer programmers were there 30 years ago?
The man who does not keep up with what is going on and who is not psychologically prepared
for change will inevitably lose out to the man practicing the state of the art in that field. Nobody
wants yesterday’s newspaper but the junkman. If a customer thinks your service is poor or that
you approach is antiquated, he spreads that news very fast. A salesman friend of mine told me
once, “Each man you treat will have 60 friends he will tell.” Do you want 60 people speaking
well of you or would you prefer they spoke ill of you and your service? Honestly evaluate
yourself and get your friends to help you (to avoid the personal bias). Your watchword should
be, “And just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way (Luke 6:31).” As you
consider your product or service (or the quality of the job you are doing if you are someone’s
employee), ask yourself these questions. “Would I pay the kind of money that I am charging for
this service? Is there anything shoddy or substandard here? Have I taken any improper shortcuts
that could diminish the life or value of this service or product? Would I--knowing all that I know
about the nature of what I am offering—buy it for myself? Is it a good value? Would I want
somebody to sell me a similar product or service at a similar price?” If the answer is, “Yes, this
is an excellent buy,” then ask your unity group and your friends to give you their
recommendations. As a matter of fact, ask them on a regular basis to check out what you are
producing. They are your friends and counselors. They love you and are looking out for your
best interests. You can depend on them to be a permanent “quality control” committee. Just be
sure that you—and they—understand the nature of your service and the niche it fills in the local
economy. I used Alvaro Torres’ restaurants as an example. Alvaro didn’t design them to be
either fast food eateries or swank haute cuisine bistros. It would be fatuous to compare his
product and presentation with Burger King or with a very exclusive and expensive French
restaurant. That would be like trying to compare apples, oranges, and bananas. Alvaro’s
restaurants try to be the best in THEIR league. Douglas Malloch summed it up in the last two
stanzas of his poem “Be Best of Whatever You Are”
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew.
There’s something for all of us here,
There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser to do,
And the task you must do is near.
If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail,
If you can’t be a sun, be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail…
Be the best of whatever you are!
Part 4: Financial Counselors
All good planning requires the participation of other people. No one person has all the facts or
knows all the answers. In an earlier chapter we talked about your unity group and how the
members could help each other to prosperity. Ideally, each member should serve in some
business advisory capacity, but this is rarely the case. You unity group should encompass
Christian friends in whom there is great mutual confidence and a basic dedication to glorify God.
The unity group is interested in helping each other attain total prosperity—body, soul, and spirit.
Its members don’t necessarily possess great business acumen, though one or more might.
Therefore, as you begin to move in the business and investment world you will need the advice
and counsel of specialists in those fields. This begins to happen naturally because as you make
wise decisions, you gain more confidence. This works a tangible change in your emotional and
mental composition, and you find that people with whom you didn’t have anything in common
before are now people you desire to know. You begin to see a most interesting truth: In the
beginning of his career as man has to work for his money; later it should work for him. This all
depends on how well he invests. You recall I said that they way to wealth is to build up incomeproducing equities. Here is the process briefly:
1. You work and save as much money as you can.
2. The money you save, you invest in diversified, income-producing businesses, real estate,
perhaps even stocks, etc.
3. You reinvest all income from your investments and continue your savings-for-investment
program.
4. Eventually your investments, if properly managed and if your savings input has been
sufficiently high over a long enough period, will provide you with a living that frees you
for greater Christian service.
This procedure sounds very simple, but it is actually relatively complicated. The stock market,
the commodities exchange, gold and silver markets, real estate, business ventures, are highly
volatile. It is much easier for the person with a little knowledge to lose money than to make it,
especially if he listens to other people who have a little knowledge. If you truly want good
advice, look for people who are successful and say to them frankly, “I’ve been saving some
money, and I’d like to invest it. Do you have any ideas, or know anyone I could talk to about
getting oriented.”
You’ll be surprised just how quickly they will volunteer to help as long as you don’t approach
them when they are rushed for time. If they feel you are not a threat, that you are not trying to
develop a competitive position, they will probably be wise enough to understand that if you go
on to succeed you might someday be in the position to help them. It is the “sowing and reaping”
principle again. They help you now; you reciprocate later.
When you decide to get past general business advice into receiving more detailed counsel
about investments, you must very carefully choose experts in whatever area you are
investigating. You don’t go to a stock broker if you want to now about no-load mutual funds.
They generally don’t make any commission on those transactions. If you want to deal in
commodities, you find a broker who is a commodities specialist, preferably in the commodities
that interest you. You begin this sorting-out process by going to those successful people in your
community who have been willing to help you with general business questions and you tell them
that you want to invest—let’s say—in real estate. They may give you some general opinions
about property ownership[ as compared to other income-producing possibilities, but unless they
are experts, the best thing they can do is refer you to consultants and brokers. At this point you
will have to be willing to pay for advice. That is how the specialists make their living. They
research particular areas, compare them with other investments, keep abreast of day-to-day and
even minute-to-minute developments in their fields and try to find the short range and long term
trends. Their aim is to come up with conclusions, propositions and proposals that you can use to
make the final decisions. Your unity group and your personal study can prepare you to
intelligently use their information.
For example, each member in your unity group studies some aspect of investment. You are
particularly interested in real estate, so you do all the reading and research possible. You talk to
successful men in the community about the subject. Finally, with your unity group you compare
real estate with the others’ findings and conclude that part of your money should go into this
field. You already know something of the possibilities and trends and different investment
instruments. When you go to the expert you will be able to ask pertinent questions and
understand what he is talking about. You will be poised for a decision. Once you have a possible
advisor, find out his “track record,” that is, whether in the long run his advice has turned into
hard cash for himself and the people he advises. Ask him directly who his clients are. You can
tell fairly quickly by this method, especially if those clients have been with him for five or ten
years. If the majority have bought his services five or six months, be careful. He may be a poor
counselor with a high turnover rate among his customers. If he says, “The names of my clients
are confidential. All my people trust me completely, and there is no need to check track records
here,” you know for sure to find somebody else. Any successful and reputable counselor will
gladly give you references. It is a good idea to talk to some of these people. They may be able to
give you insights into how to use the counselor’s service to your best advantage.
Many people, of course, don’t want to spend money on good counselors. They figure out their
own taxes (which is all right if your situation is uncomplicated and you read some tax books to
make sure you are covering the bases), they make their own investments, they buy property on
their own initiative. I feel that knowledge is one of the cheapest commodities you will ever
purchase. I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of books, and they have returned
hundreds, even thousands of times their cost to me when I consider how I have used the
information to benefit myself and others financially. I pay financial consultants. I know one
specialist who charges $2,000 an hour. That works out to over $33 a minute.
“That’s ridiculous,” some would say. “I wouldn’t pay $33 for a minute worth of advice.”
I would, and I have. However, before I call a highly-paid consultant I clearly form my
questions. I gather all information possibly on the subject. Then I call and ask for advice.
Sometimes two minutes of consultation--$66-- earns me thousands of dollars when I put the
information to work.
Whoever your consultants are, and however much they charge, you want to cultivate them.
Thank them for their work. Send them a card or even a little present from time to time. Yes, you
already paid them their fee, but you are going a little further to let them know that you value
them and want the relationship to continue. Some of these purely professional arrangements can
turn into friendships or at least long term friendly business arrangements that will eventually
benefit you both far beyond the consultant-client-fee relationship. Always look to develop long
term practical unities.
Lastly, don’t think that your consultants should be just in the financial realm. Doctors and
lawyers are really a combination of service professional and consultant. Your church elders or
pastor are consultants. Professors and educators can be your consultants. Not all of them work on
a fee basis. If you go to them for special advice, remember to recognize their cooperation with a
small gift or other token of your appreciation. For example, I have some mechanic friends.
When I am considering buying a used vehicle, I ask them to check it out---test compression, look
for signs of wear or collisions, make as good an evaluation as possible. I always give them
something as a way of showing them I value the time they took from other jobs to do me a favor.
These men are consultants and very important to my well-being. I make sure they know I am
available to help them. It takes much more than one man to establish prosperity, whether in the
economic or any other realm. Take advantage of all the help you can get.
Part 5: Real Estate and Stocks
The sure way to prosperity is through investment. Saving money in the bank is not the route to
financial independence. It is a relatively safe way to store money, and should be viewed strictly
as a method by which you have cash readily available for transfer to investments. By the way,
time certificates of deposit are not investments. Somebody is still making money on your money,
and worse, your dollars are locked into an account sometimes for a period of years. The real
avenues to wealth are through real estate, starting your own business, or investing in alreadygoing businesses. All three are at bottom the same—a stock market type of operation. Take a
house. Though there is no stock market that is posting prices, the fact is that the value of your
house goes up and down everyday; you could even say every hour, depending on what buyers
want in your market. You don’t pay any attention to these fluctuations because you are not
buying or selling houses every day.
Let’s say you buy a house today for $400,000. Just as the stock market, a willing seller sold to a
willing buyer at a price agreed upon by both. Suppose the day after buying it for some reason
you have to sell the house but you can’t find a buyer at $400,000. Finally, someone agrees to pay
you $350,000. You could say, “My house lost $50,000 in one day.” In fact it didn’t lose any
value. It is worth what it is worth. You were forced to sell in a short term and at a time when
there weren’t buyers clamoring for what you had to sell. On the other hand, suppose you
carefully considered all the variables before buying the house so that you wouldn’t have to sell it
in the short run. You keep it for 10 years, live in it or rent it out (which is income) and sell it for
$500,000. This time you have made a profit.
CHAPTER 37
The Family’s Role in an Integrated Life Plan
Your family is essential to your overall success. We have all heard slogans like, “The family
that prays together stays together,” and, “The family that gets together stays together.” These are
nice concepts but don’t imply any further interaction among family members. In the modern
family, Dad (and often Mom) is the family breadwinner. The children have no responsibility in
promoting their mutual prosperity. If they are old enough to have jobs they generally use their
money as they see fit, or it is used to finance a college education. This is a radical departure from
the worldwide biblical and historical tradition of the family acting as both the basic social and
economic unit. That is why I have devised another slogan, “The family that works together,
prospers together.”
Using our definition of capital as, “Brains and brawn,” it should be obvious that if the wife and
the children are brought into the economic scheme there will be a leap in productive capacity.
Perhaps the children don’t have any tremendous skills but they are able to do SOMETHING and
that capital should be turned to the advantage of the whole family. If the concept is rightly
presented to the youngsters they probably will be happy to cooperate (once they get past feeling
bad about lost play time). First of all they will be honing their skills. Second, they will get firsthand training in planning, budgeting and working toward life goals, a field of study that precious
few children ever learn either from parents or school. Third they become recipients--present and
future—of their family’s economic gains. They enjoy a better standard of living now and when
their parents die, they and THEIR children will be amply provided for by the family estate.
These goals are sure ones because the Christian family is a covenant unit. The husband and
wife have covenanted before God to stay together and to raise their children as best as they
understand his will. There is order, stability and long term continuity. There is every reason to
work together because the common mentality is to serve one another, not to exploit the other
person.
Contrast this with the instant gratification syndrome that says, “I worked for it. I earned it.
Now I’m going to spend it.”
Dad comes home from work with the paycheck and says, “I worked hard all week. I am going
to get that fishing reel I’ve been looking at for months. It’s on sale.”
Mom counters, “I suppose you think I’ve been lounging around? Who do you think has been
watching the kids, cleaning the house and slaving over a hot stove? If you’re going to get a
fishing reel, I’m getting new coat!”
Junior hears all this and comes to a logical conclusion, “I earned this money on my paper route
and I’m going to buy a new skateboard.”
There is no cooperation, no mutual goals. There is no planning, and there is surely no
prosperity.
Let’s suppose Father finally says, “From now on this family is going to work together and
we’re going to define long term goals. As long as we all live under one roof we’re going to share
our destiny. And if we can keep on as a unit even after the children marry, so much the better.”
Junior is now 16 years old, and he has never seen his parents do anything in the area of long
term planning. He has a part time job that nets him $50 a week and he is not inclined to turn it
over to the family. It’s the money he’s saving to buy a car. “What do I get out of this?” he asks.
“It’s degrading. All the kids get to keep their money.”
“The money you earn will partly pay for your own expenses, but the rest of it is going to go
into investments so that you will have something available for a college education or to get
started in a business when you’re older. We’ll work on investing together,” Dad replies.
It may take some time, but if Dad and Mom conscientiously do what they are talking about,
Junior eventually will come to see that his own best interest is the family’s best interest. With
everyone helping they might go into a business. There are tremendous tax advantages available
when you involve your family in a business. In essence, instead of working harder to make
money, you work smarter and have more available for investment.
Meanwhile Junior begins to catch on that family cooperation is more than a way for him to
save money for college. He begins to see himself as a participating member of a unity group. He
starts to savor something of the adult world and of decision making. Most of all, he discovers
there are goals that are much grander and more far reaching than his little ideas of a car or
whatever he was going to spend his money on.
I recall several Asian families that came to the city where I was living. They pooled their
capital and started a supermarket—not a big fancy one by any means. They constructed some
apartments in the building and literally lived there in shifts. One person would sleep certain
hours while another would be attending the store. When the time came someone else to rest, the
one who had been sleeping would perhaps begin restocking shelves or drive to suppliers to pick
up merchandise.
Many people laughed at them. I heard comments like, “Man those people live like dogs.”
I have to admit their living situation wasn’t the best. They were sacrificing present comfort for
future well-being. Everyone worked—the children, the parents, the grandparents. Their store
emphasized service and it wasn’t long before they had a very successful market. Their next step
was to buy a small acreage with some of the profits they had made. They turned it into a produce
farm. Meanwhile, they kept plowing another portion of the profits back into the business.
Finally, after they had established themselves fully on the financial level, they began to buy
excellent homes and drive more expensive cars. This is a clear expression of what Proverbs
24:27 advised, “Prepare your work outside
And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterwards, then, build your house.” The whole
process was relatively quick because all the family members worked together toward a common
goal.
I could cite several more examples of how economic cooperation helped establish lasting
prosperity in families that started with literally nothing more than their willingness to work
together. One case that I have watched over the years also involves an Asian immigrant family.
The husband started a small restaurant and since he did not have capital to hire employees, his
wife helped wait tables and cook, while the grandparents washed dishes and took care of other
chores. The children, as they grew, began clearing tables and sweeping. They eventually moved
to a larger restaurant and began to experience a greater degree of financial success. Had the
whole family not participated in the work I doubt that they would have lasted a year in the
restaurant business.
If you don’t have a business you will have to be a bit more creative in involving the whole
family in an enterprise that will benefit them all. One alternative to the children working
newspaper routes or part-time jobs might be to start a sideline in which everyone can participate.
Maybe you have a common hobby that could be turned into a moneymaker? Whichever way—
business, separate jobs, sideline—you must promote a sense of active participation or the
children will feel exploited. Don’t just pool all the money into the family budget. Put it into an
investment that everyone can have a voice in—sort of like a combination unity
group/partnership. You can all agree on the use of the profits—whether it be for the long term
building up of the family fortune with the understanding that the children will eventually partake
of the inheritance. It could be used for some specific purpose, like the family vacation. The main
thing is not what you do with your earnings but that you involve your family in this very
important area of life that too often is ignored in a child’s training. I assure you that if you’re in
business with your wife and children you will be praying together and you will be getting
together. It is a natural progression for the Christian family that works together.
CHAPTER 38
So You’re Going to Retire?
The wisdom of this world subtly teaches us, “Work is a bother. Retirement is a blessing”, and,
“Work is what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.” If you subscribe to this kind
of thinking, you will live a discontented and frustrated life and finally get to those supposedly
rosy retirement years with neither the energy nor the money to “enjoy yourself.”
The Bible’s perspective is entirely different than the world’s. God sees work as good, healthy
and useful: “The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and
keep it (Gen 2:15).” The idea that Eden was an idyllic place where Adam lounged around
waiting for food to grow is an erroneous idea propagated by Satan. If all you did was lounge you
would soon get bored. Time would weigh heavily on your hands and desperation would set in as
you found yourself useless to yourself and your environment. God made man in His own
image—that is, with intelligence and creativity—and that is why He gave Adam work to do: so
he could exercise his creative capacity in a satisfying, deeply fulfilling way.
In the same way God has a destiny for you to fulfill. As you walk in it, you won’t think of
retiring. You will be so intent on enjoying your God-given building abilities that you will wish
you had more time available for work, not less. There is no retirement for the man of God.
Nowhere in the Bible will you find that concept. This does not mean there is no rest, because
God Himself rested on the seventh day. He wants us to enjoy rest both regular short periods of
rejuvenation and longer occasional periods of renewal and spiritual rejuvenation. In the light of
this, is there a place for retirement PLANNING in the plan for total prosperity?
I say, “Yes, there is!”
This is not a contradiction. What I mean is that though your goal should be to go on serving
God with every fiber of your being until your appointed time on this earth is over, you should
take advantage of every legitimate man-provided technique that allows to you to gain financial
independence. One of your goals should be to dedicate yourself fully to God’s service. Unless
you are called to some phase of the ministry in which the church supports you, the wisest idea is
to come to the point where you can direct your energies in any direction at any moment without
having to worry about financial backing. My own life is a case in point. Because of my
successful real estate and business investments, my wife Dacie and I don’t have to depend on our
church for financial support. If I felt God were showing to me to take an extended leave of
absence from my pastoral duties I could do so without being an economic burden on the
congregation. Moreover, I’d still be tithing from my non-church sources of income. To me, this
is a blessing and a privilege, and it should be one of your goals too.
Now let’s backtrack to those “Legitimate man-provided techniques.” What I mean is that
government and employers provide pension and retirement funds so take advantage of them. For
example, if you are covered by social security or self employment tax, you want to get the
maximum benefits possible. If your place of work has a pension plan, you will want to
participate to the degree that is to your advantage. This does not mean you plan to retire at age 62
or 65 though you might leave your job at that age or any other age. It just means that you will
incorporate what you receive from those sources into your overall life plan. Recently I discussed
the various optional retirement plans available with George, a young friend who was just starting
to get his integrated life plan in operation.
“How come the government lets people set up personal funds like the Individual Retirement
Account (IRA) or the Keogh Account.” George asked.
“Because the government knows that if you don’t help yourself there will come a time when
the state will end up taking care of you, and maybe even your children” I explained. “If you
don’t use the tax shelter opportunities the government will tax you to the hilt, and it will be that
much harder to attain financial independence.”
“What does the IRA do?”
“It allows you to save a certain amount of money every year and put it into a governmentapproved investment account that you direct. You are already saving part of your income in
accordance with our budget plan. Now you can defer paying taxes on all or part of that amount
by putting it in an IRA. A good choice might be to open a mutual fund IRA.”
“But you have to pay taxes on that money sooner or later, right?” George asked.
“Sure. But the idea is that you don’t pay the taxes now. You use taxes you would have paid the
government-plus additional money that comes in as a result of your investments in the IRA—as
part of your capital building base. When you start taking money out of the account sometime
after you’re 59 years old you pay taxes on the amount you take out every year. The idea is that if
you retire from the job world (not from the ministry) at age 62 or 65, your income will be very
low and therefore you presumably will be in a lower tax bracket than you were when you were
working and putting money into the IRA,” I replied.
“You gain on both ends. On one side, your taxes—instead of going to the government—are
being used to help you accumulate capital.”
George remarked. “On the other side, if you were in like a 30 percent tax bracket when you put
the money in the IRA, but now that you have retired you’re in the 20 percent bracket, you pay
less taxes than you would have to pay earlier. That’s a pretty good deal.”
“It’s not just a good deal,” I told George, “It’s an excellent one! I recommend that everyone
take maximum advantage of an IRA or similar account, especially one that is tied into some kind
of investment program.”
“Are there any other ways to build up equity by deferring taxes?”
“There are. Visit a good tax consultant (not just someone who works up your income tax form
for you, but a specialist). Let him help you map out a plan commensurate with your needs. Even
a person in a low tax bracket can save a lot of money in this way. In addition, if you consider that
part of your total prosperity plan includes laying up a portion for your grandchildren, there are
some excellent programs like the Clifford Reversionary Trust and the Uniform Gift to the Minors
Act here in the United States.
“There are many other possibilities, like educational trusts. Whatever form they take, they are
designed by the government to get you to be responsible for your own and your children’s future.
Don’t think you have to be in a high tax bracket to make good use of these options. Anything
that gives you even a little leverage now will give you big gains in 20 or 30 years if invested
wisely.”
George agreed that these ideas, especially retirement plans, are very useful to younger men,
but he wondered what value they have for people like his father who are nearing retirement age,
and who haven’t planned for complete financial independence. He said his father planned to
retire on whatever social security offered him. He also pointed out that many people work for
companies where there are mandatory retirement ages. What do these people do?
First of all, no one is ever too old to start toward total prosperity. A 70-year old retiree can
look around for a job or start his own business. My point is that there has to be a shift in the
retirement age mentality that has paralyzed older people in the last few generations. With careful
planning a man does not have to put off doing certain things—like extensive travel—until he is
quite old. My wife and I have traveled throughout our marred life, and we will continue to do so
as long as God gives us good health. Travel is part of our service to God. We visit brethren,
minister and build-them up in Jesus and see the sights along the way. Why should something like
travel be such a big deal? There is a group of retired Christians called MAPP. They are not all
rich by any means but each couple has purchased a mobile home, house trailer or camper. They
go to different churches and use their skills to build meeting halls, schools, and the like. They
remodel rooms, do plumbing and electrical work, improve the grounds, and generally spruce the
facilities they work on. In the process they sometimes have the opportunity to impart job skills to
young men and women. They are not retired at all. They have just switched jobs. Instead of
sitting around the house or going on some kind of seniors’ vacation, they spend part of their time
ministering their skills to the church. They get in plenty of travel, but it is gloriously combined
with service and friendship. In
The church today desperately needs the continuity and experience older people provide, but
oldsters need to see themselves willing to help. The church needs to open up to them. We would
see changes in the Body of Christ. Retirement would no longer be that twilight time I described
earlier in this book of the retired minister looking blankly into a clouded future. It would be a
time of service, of love, of forming new and valuable friendships. And think of the training a
man or woman with with 40 years of job experience could give to a teenager! Think of the work
they could do for the community’s poor! And those who aren’t too active physically could be
tremendous prayer warriors or counselors. From my own perspective, what the world calls the
retirement years should not be seen as a season in which society shuts its old people off to a
limbo where they have license to distract themselves with a few games of self indulgence. It is a
time for dynamic work, a time in which a man and woman can perhaps make their greatest
contribution to society and the church. All it takes is the right mind set, and the proper working
out of all the options available for building financial stability. From this perspective, pension
and retirement plans aren’t programs to phase out of active living, but tickets into freer, more
active service.
CHAPTER 39
The Heart of a Failure
A fellow called me up a short while ago and said, “Listen, Jim, you told me it was going to be
a good year for the stock market. I put my money into stocks and I barely broke even. The
market didn’t go anywhere. How can a guy make any money if even the experts don’t know
what they’re talking about? I don’t want to lose my shirt.
I did happen to tell this person that many respected market analysts were predicting a good
year. As it turned out, it was only a fair year, but those who invested wisely generally made some
money—very nearly as much as they would have if the had put their money in the best
performing money markets. More importantly they were perfectly poised for the fat gains
registered when the market hit record highs the following year. So then what was my friend’s
complaint? He didn’t lose anything and in the end he gained handsomely the following year. He
was worried about failure, and the thought of losing money made him jumpy. He was beginning
to think making money on stock investments could not be done. He was thinking about quitting.
And quitting is failure just as sure as making a wrong move and losing all your money is
“failing.” Where did my friend’s jittery thoughts come from? I’ll tell you straight out: from the
Devil. He’s rigged the fact, fact, fact, conclusion process so convincingly that he has tricked
countless millions into thinking that “playing it safe” is not taking any risks at all. In Chapter 23,
“Take Risks, Not Chances,” we saw there is a world of difference between risks and chances,
and every progressive move implies some risk. When you get out of bed in the morning you risk
that you might stub your toe on the floor.
The successful man takes risks, but he calculates the cost beforehand. If he is wrong, he tries
again, and again, until he is successful. He is the hero of Edgar A. Guest’s poem,
“It Couldn’t Be Done”
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.
This particular poem has deep significance for me because for many years I was dogged by a
“It couldn’t be done” frame of mind that made me a failure by all criteria. I was a failure in my
family life and in my ministry. I’d get up to preach and say in essence, “The Word of God says,
but we know it can’t be done.” My finances and health were at the point of breaking. When I
finally came back to God I was so shaky I wasn’t completely sure He could guide me or even
wanted to. The assurance he gave me was “Do my Word even if you don’t understand it. In the
doing you will find out what it means.” In summary, He told me to practice what the Bible
teaches. I began doing so and my life changed for the good. Likewise when you have this
internal belief that God wants you to prosper you don’t have to worry about failure; you need to
plan for success.
I was a failure because I believed I was. I confessed that nothing would work out right, that I
couldn’t do it, that nobody wanted to cooperate with me, that I didn’t get the breaks, that I
couldn’t get the training or backing. When the Lord touched me I finally understood that I WAS
NOT A FAILURE. I had just failed in certain endeavors. God doesn’t give you or me any
guarantees that we won’t fail—that is, experience temporary setbacks—but He does protect us
from being failures. What the world calls failure is really comprised of two different elements
that should be carefully separated in the long term Christian point of view.
The first element is a belief about something that sets you up for a permanent downfall. For
example, I believe that God’s will for me as a Christian is to be poor. Therefore I make no moves
toward financial prosperity. Result: I am poor. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have thoughts of
big bucks but my wrong beliefs stop me from making positive moves to earn them. Another
possibility is that I’m internally saying, “I’d have money if only I didn’t have to do this thing that
God has me locked into.” The excuse might be, “I have to take care of my mother...my sickly
brother…I have a big family…I’m in a low-paying job and can’t change. The fallacy is wrong
belief. Prosperity is too good to be true, therefore it’s better to be poor. Or, my present situation
prohibits me from being prosperous. You must be clear that current circumstances have nothing
to do with economic prosperity or with success in any other area of life. You must project from
the present into the future by combining right thoughts with right actions to bring forth the life
vision God has given you.
Another reason that makes people de facto failures is they only have a vague desire to prosper
or to do something. It’s like, “Wouldn’t it be nice to prosper.” A similar statement comes from
people who muse, “I want to prosper. I just wish I had some more money so I could get started.”
In fact, they never get started, and life passes them by. Perhaps the saddest cases are those who
grasp that God wants them to prosper and be in good health, even as their soul prospers, but they
settle for some very small version of prosperity or latch onto just one or two prosperity principles
and cling to them without searching the Bible for God’s full revelation on the subject. Thus, for
lack of persistence, determination or faith, they end up failures in the sense that they never
realize their full potential. They go limping out of this life losing the glorious sense of fulfillment
that Paul experienced shortly before his death. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness (2
Tim. 4:7-8).”
If you look through the Scriptures you’ll find that Paul had more than his fair share of hard
times, failures, set backs and wrong moves. Before God touched him with a revelation of the
deity of Jesus Christ and laid out for him a plan of total prosperity that would affect millions to
come, he was so headed in the wrong direction that he spent his time persecuting Christians and
was a witness at Stephen’s—the first martyr—death. When he realized what he had done, he
didn’t quit and say, “I’m a failure. All my training, all my work, everything, was a waste.” He
counted all he had and everything he was as a loss, and started over living his life Jesus’ way. He
wasn’t a failure. He had merely failed in some endeavors.
That brings me to the second aspect: Failure is part of a learning process. Consider a person
who enters the commodities market. This hearkens to the parable of the 10 talents. The men with
five and two talents respectively were told by their master to go and trade. What did they do?
Obviously they bought and sold things. They tried to buy the products of their time as low prices
and sell them at higher ones. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether every transaction was successful,
but I doubt it. The business was risky enough that the third servant buried his talent so as not to
lose it in the marketplace, even though he also had been told to trade. There is an important
lesson here. If we go about this business of prospering by trying to do God’s will, he—by the
example he gives us of how the master treated the two faithful servants—is telling us that we
will not be wiped out. We will not be a failure, though we may fail. He will help us to deal
prudently.
No Christian should ever see failure as a state of being. This is tantamount to a denial of
God’s regenerative power in his life. On the other hand, it might be that a man is not suited to a
certain type of endeavor. Fine! Now that he knows what he can’t do (that wonderful learning
process again), let him sit down with his unity group and analyze what he can do well. That is
the simple solution. You see, success is a way of approaching life, an attitude toward life. It is
not a place, a goal. It is a journey. It is moving constantly toward your destiny over barriers and
past obstacles until you have come into the full expression of Christ Jesus in your life. There is
not a loser in the world who wouldn’t be a sterling winner if he took God at his Word and acted
upon it.
CHAPTER 40
Your Strategy for the End Times
We are drawing near the end of human existence as it has been for the last 6,000 or so years.
As a Christian I look forward to the physical return of Jesus Christ coming in clouds of glory to
rule over the world. As a student of Bible prophesy I believe the Last Days are drawing around
us. I am no doomsayer—just a realist who is NOT going to head for the hills but do exactly what
the Lord Jesus told His disciples in the parable of the kingdom in Luke 19:12-13. Jesus says “A
certain nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then returned.
And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas (equivalent to about 100 days wages),
and said to them “Do business with this until I come back.”
If you are like me, and plan to do business until the Lord comes (if it should be in our
lifetime), you will have to be emotionally, psychologically and mentally prepared form some
bizarre events. History is full of disasters, but as the End Times come you will see more and
more convulsive happenings in the global economy, in moral values, in the family, in the church,
and every other arena of life. Your family—to weather these times of metamorphosis—must be
based on faith in Jesus Christ and on the practice of the Word of God. What I have said in this
book must be part of your daily practice.
I believe that before the stage is set for Armageddon the world will experience disaster after
disaster culminating in World War Three. Following that will be a time of world chaos, the rise
of the antichrist, and the Tribulation. What the time period is among these events I’m not certain.
That is why we must do business until the Lord returns for us. But I do know this: The long term
historical and economic cycles will remain in force but they will be more difficult to see because
what used to be blips—recessions, smaller scale wars, etc.—on the graph of history will turn into
sudden and extreme reverses and rises. Economic depressions will be massive, causing the
dislocation of entire societies, starvation, desperation. Even good times will be bad. Eventually
the global economy will collapse, either through war or some other agent, and paper money
won’t be worth anything. I don’t think God wants His people to be ruined with the rest of the
world. His general will for us is abundance and His Word says, “The prudent man sees evil and
hides himself, the naive proceed and pay the penalty (Proverbs 27:12).” Ask yourself this
question: How does the prudent man see the evil coming? My reply is: The Lord shows him.
Believe me, God will protect those who pay attention to His warnings. The naive, the people
whose lives are a constant round of consumer debts and who haven’t applied themselves to the
principles of true prosperity, will be horribly wiped out in the coming crashes. It won’t be
because the indications were not there. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they could look into
the sky and tell you what the weather was going to be like the next day but they could’t read the
signs of the times. Evil does not generally just sneak up on us. When you see the economy
getting shaky, get your money out of the stock market and buy precious metals and durable
commodities. When you see the banks are wavering because Third World countries are
defaulting on debts and the American national debt is beyond control, convert your cash into
properties or gold and silver. During times of chaos you will find tremendous financial
opportunities because prices will be rock bottom. Is this taking advantage of other people’s
suffering? No! While they squandered their money on vanities you worked to provide for
yourself and THEM during the hard times. You are receiving just compensation for services
rendered. It won’t be your fault when the price structure changes. In short, if you are properly
poised mentally and monetarily, you can keep doing business right through the worst of times.
You must so plan that if the Lord doesn’t return in your lifetime, you will be able to pass on
blessings to future generations.
Nevertheless, I offer you a warning: Now that you are prospering with stocks and gold and
silver and food laid up against the disasters ahead, you need to be careful that a proud or
stubborn attitude does not creep into your thinking. It is only the blessing of God that allows you
to get things done, to prosper and to be in health. Constantly thank Him for what you have, and
don’t let your living standard increase too much. Instead of being greedy and covetous, learn to
give more and more of your income to the work of God.
The great Methodist preacher, John Wesley, said it is man’s clear duty to earn all he can. If
you can earn $10 an hour that’s better than earning $5, and $20 is better than $10. Wesley also
told his people to save all they could. Living a thrifty life and nurturing your finances leads to
economic freedom. Finally, Wesley said that to avoid greed, give all you can. There is a curious
quality about this giving. As you become known as a generous person, you build up good will in
the community that might very well protect your family and your assets during lawless times.
Add to that a reputation for gentleness. Proverbs 18:23 says, “The poor man utters
supplications, but the rich man answers roughly.” Some wealthy people get the idea that they are
the ones who accumulated their wealth and because they are special they can treat others poorly.
Such people are spiritually bankrupt. Everything comes from God and He can take it away just
as easily as He gave it. If your word is always gentle, courteous, helpful, you will find that
people will want to cooperate with you, do business with you, and that in the difficult days to
come, seek you out for help and counsel. This is perhaps the crux of the matter. When everything
is getting wiped out by the stormy waves of confusion and destruction that will sweep over the
earth eventually you will be an island of stability and safety. I believe that is part of God’s plan
for you and all His people. Your prosperity and assurance will draw people to you and you will
have the opportunity to point them to Christ Jesus, the source of your success. There is no way to
compare the value of a man’s soul with any earthly treasure. Salvation is worth more than
anything else in the universe. You want to be an instrument in God’s hands to bring new life to a
confused and hurting world. In a sense, all the rest—your prosperity on every level of life--is just
one of the ways God uses to get the message through that there is hope and love and life in Him.
Let Him use you to your fullest capacity to win others to Jesus. Their souls will be like a
treasure stored up for you in heaven that you can enjoy for eternity.
CHAPTER 41
The Often Overlooked Essential
All of the principles in this book—correctly applied—produce results. There is just one catch:
The results won’t have any eternal value unless you are walking in God’s will. Many wicked
men have prospered materially but their prosperity isn’t serving them in hell. They came into this
world with nothing, and they went out with nothing but everlasting punishment. The Apostle
Paul tells us that we will be rewarded in heaven according to how we have built on this earth.
True, we can’t take our material possessions into the next world, but we can store up treasures in
the heaven by doing God’s will. Our Father adds to our account as we do the good works He had
prepared for us even before we were born. This is the hidden dimension of true prosperity and it
depends on one extremely important and sometimes overlooked principle: Prayer.
“But everyone prays,” some might protest.
I’m not so sure about that. A lot of Christians roll through a few quick phrases: “Bless this
food in Jesus’ name.” “Lord, guide my decisions.” “Father, give me a new car.” These are
prayers, but they are not REALLY prayer. It is more like a formula. It is what Christians think
they are supposed to do, or it is how they assume they can get something from God. But it is not
what God wants. He wants communication.
The fact is He requires us to address Him in prayer, and everywhere in Scripture we see that
men and women who were successful were people who talked to Him in prayer. More than that,
prayer is one of the ultimate expressions of our dependency on God. It is our recognition that
everything—absolutely everything—that we are and that we have comes from Him. Prayer is
addressing yourself to your Creator, Savior, Father. It is entrusting your will, desires, hopes,
troubles, cares, fears, and needs to His care. It is asking Him to bless and care for others as a sign
of your concern for them. But in every case, what you are saying is “Lord, apart from you I have
no power to do anything. I depend on you.”
A good example of this is what we call the Lord’s Prayer. More correctly it should be the
Disciples’ Prayer, because they asked Him to teach them to pray. Jesus told them:
“Pray, then in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom
come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” As you pray in a similar way you are getting
a right perspective. You are putting God and His affairs first on your list of priorities.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” This is your acknowledgment that without Him there would
be no food, no anything.
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Here again is dependence.
We need Him to forgive our sins. If it were a question of justice, we would be headed for hell.
We need mercy and forgiveness for breaking His righteous laws. We depend on His grace.
“And do not lead us into temptation; but deliver us from evil” In this case “evil” is “the evil
one,” or Satan. The devil is constantly scheming to turn us from God. We acknowledge that we
need our Father’s protection.
“(For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever Amen).” This last part isn’t
in all versions of the Bible but it again clearly expresses the Source of every good thing in the
universe, and our need for him.
A lot of people think this prayer is a formula you repeat and God is then pleased and happy
and will give you nice things. God doesn’t respond to hollow repetitions except as an act of
mercy. What Jesus is showing us in this prayer is not a form by which we get God to pay
attention to us but a principle of dependence on God for everything. This is a truth we should be
aware of 24 hours a day. St. Paul admonishes us, “Pray without ceasing.” This means that our
hearts should be constantly tuned into God in a state of humble dependences. It is like carrying
on an internal dialogue with God on a continuous basis. A very good book on the subject is The
Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. As we learn to communicate our love and
gratitude to Him our prayers sometimes will be so deep and personal that we won’t even be able
to put them into words: we will have to let the Holy Spirit interpret our yearnings and carry them
to the Father.
There is another kind of prayer, and that is when we ask for something specific. In mapping
out a plan for prosperity it is necessary to seek God for guidance on a large number of moves,
and to ask Him to provide us with some very definite material needs. It is at these moments that
our chief concern should be to give God glory in everything. Throwing the matter in this light
often eliminates some requests even before we make them. We see that they are just personal
desires or whims. But if an idea stays with us, we need to deepen our dialogue with our Father.
“Lord, I feel this thing is really your will, but I don’t want to do anything that is not strictly
according to your purposes. Please show me what to do to bring it about if you want me to have
it.”
You will find that over the years your prayers will change from personal requests to profound
desires that God’s purposes be accomplished on the earth. That is because He will have granted
you the things your body and soul need. He will then be leading you to identify more and more
in spirit with Him. Up to that changeover you will probably spend a good deal of your prayer
time asking for things. Some people are very specific—as if God were a mail order catalog.
However, the more I reflect on the subject the more I believe that when it comes to requests, you
should concern yourself with finding out what God wants and cooperate with Him to bring those
things about. Don’t spend your time telling Him what you want. God is not moved by clear
visualizations like, “I want to have five million dollars in investments by June 1, 2025. Some
Bible teachers affirm that this is how to get our Heavenly Father to act. I don’t think it works any
better than how you as a parent are moved if your child comes up to you and says “By this time
next week you will buy me a red bicycle because I need a red bicycle. All the kids in the
neighborhood have bicycles, and I know you are a good parent and will give me one too. It
should have coaster brakes and...” What God is moved by is your sense of humility and
dependence on Him, by your desire to do his will and by His personal concern for your wellbeing. He tells us not to worry about what to eat or how to dress. He already plans to provide us
with these things before we ask. Our part is to cooperate with Him so that He can bless us, and
not curse us. We should take the attitude, “Father, I know you have already planned to meet my
needs. I thank you in advance for your love and generosity. Now, show me what I can do to
further your purpose on this earth. You have provided me with what I need for life, now use me
for your glory’s sake. I know that doing what you want done is better than anything I could
imagine to do for you.”
It’s as simple as that. God is well pleased when you try to see from his divine perspective
instead of from your limited human one. It’s not that you have the ability to see very much from
His angle, but a least He shows you that part of His kingdom work that pertains to your
particular sphere of operation. The great benefit in praying this way is that you are never
centered on self, never centered on your projects but always centered on God. He orders your
steps. There is no way you can fail in the long term because an important part of His will is your
prosperity.
You say, “God, let your will be done in my life, and teach me to do what you want.”
He responds along the lines of what the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle John to say, “Beloved,
I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” He
then teaches you the principles of His Word and gives you the opportunities to prosper. Liken
this to the master in Jesus’ parables who always gave his servants the materials to prosper when
he told them to trade and increase their holdings. Pray, practice God’s Word, use the talents he
has given you and He will bless you with success from here through eternity.