Economic Freedom and God's Financial System
In this teaching I’m going to describe another economic system that exists apart from, and superior to, the world’s economic system. Christians should have a financial life based on the Kingdom of God’s economic system, rather than the world’s system. I intend to reveal God’s economic system to you, and show you how to begin operating therein.
As a child I grew up around money and learning about money. My father was a CPA and a real estate developer, and I saw him reading financial books and listening to financial teachings. As he grew in his relationship with God and in his ministry, he turned his attention to understanding Godly economics. Unfortunately, in the real estate world (and in most of the world’s economic system) debt is king. I saw my father lose practically everything in the 80’s and again in the 2000’s, as the real estate market crashes, and his debt positions, ruined his finances. These experiences, by the way, created both fear of lack and hesitation about investments in my mind, which I’m still working on today.
When my father’s real estate business collapsed around 2009, I had to begin practicing law full time. I had run his office construction business, and practiced law very little. As God would have it, one of my father’s friends, an apartment developer, needed an attorney. This man gave me a chance and began teaching me about real estate finance as I practiced real estate law for him. Not long after that, another man retired from Wall Street and decided to start buying apartment buildings around the country. In short, my legal career, for the past 10 years, has basically been working for these two men and three others. My law practice is God, me and my computer. From my home office, I have now been primary transaction counsel on over $3 billion dollars in commercial real estate transactions.
By no means do I share those facts to brag. Who really cares what I do or how much I’ve done it. My point is that I’ve been exposed to serious wealth in my life, both the accumulation of significant wealth and the loss of significant wealth. I’ve also been exposed to a fair amount of financial education and thinking, both secular and Christian.
The first true financial revelation I received from God happened in a peculiar way. I heard about a pastor of a major church in a major city who drove a Lexus (and the cheapest model Lexus at that). This didn’t bother me at all, but another person was bashing the pastor for driving such a car, as a man in the ministry. The Lord used this interaction to teach me one of the most important principles of Kingdom economics – and the starting point for our discussion today – God does not experience opportunity cost.
(Econlib.org) “Opportunity cost refers to what you have to give up to buy what you want in terms of other goods or services.”
“Directly or indirectly, opportunity cost underpins the majority of day-to-day economic decisions that are made in society.” (Fernando, Jason. “Opportunity Cost”. Investopedia.”)
Anyone whose mind hasn’t been freed to God’s economic system lives with a working knowledge of opportunity cost, even if you have never heard the term. For most people, opportunity cost presents itself something like this, “If I buy that new car, I may not have enough money for my other living expenses.” An easier alternative might be, “if I eat at that restaurant tonight, I will need to eat my meals at home for the rest of the week.”
We must choose where to spend our money, and the entire reason for this choice is the limitations on our resources.
Depending on your financial level, your opportunity costs may sound very differently. My clients, for example, have virtually unlimited access to capital and debt, so they are not impacted by opportunity cost as most people. However, such decisions still present themselves, “If I spend $20 million on this apartment complex, then I will need to raise capital to buy the other one, rather than using available cash from my last sale.”
When people bash Christian preachers for having nice things, there are two reasons they do so. First, they may feel that such Christians are not living “like Christ” and Christ would have them poor. We are not going to waste much time with that unbiblical opinion. Christ suffered many things so we don’t have to, all the effects of the curse of sin, including poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). God does not call Christians to poverty, it’s just that simple.
The other reason people bash Christians for having nice things or any luxury is an opportunity cost mindset. “If that preacher has that Lexus, then some part of the Kingdom of God did without.” “If the church used the tithes for the preacher’s car, then the church can’t have the feeding ministry, or the single parent ministry (or something like that).” People think that if the church spends money on one thing, then the church has less money to spend on other things. That is an opportunity cost mindset, and honestly it’s understandable given the pervasiveness of opportunity cost thinking in the world today. People impose opportunity cost thinking on the church because they assume that the church has limited resources, as they do.
However, Christians, and God’s Church, were meant to be free from opportunity cost thinking. In fact, Christians have access to unlimited resources. The church can pay for the Pastor to have a nice car, a nice house, all the programs that God wants for that church, and still have money in the bank. All of this is possible in God’s economic system.
We must first understand that God owns the world.
(Psalms 50:7-12 NIV) “Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God. I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.”
We could spend a long time talking about this fascinating and powerful passage, but, as usual, let’s try to keep it simple. God very clearly details His ownership of the world and everything in it. But notice also God says that if He were hungry, He would not call us for one of our animals. God needs nothing from us. In fact, in addition to owning the world and everything therein, God owns all the world’s money.
(Haggai 2:6-8 NIV) “”This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
If God wants to do something in the world, He does not need to raise capital from Christians to do it. He certainly doesn’t need to take out a loan. The offering plate is not a welfare system for the Kingdom of God. People do not think this way, they do not realize these truths, and they think that God is limited by the money that we humans put in His hands. While that makes a lot of sense to our minds that are basically enslaved to the world’s economic system, that thinking is unbiblical.
So now that we understand God owns all the money, we can easily understand that God doesn’t spend money the way that we do. If God spends $1 million to build a new church, God does not have $1 million less. God may have used $1 million of His dollars in a certain way, but they are still His $1 million. So we must understand this truth – God doesn’t really spend money, He moves it.
Furthermore, as God doesn’t spend money, God is not subject to a mathematical analysis of his financial position. God’s financial position never changes. He owns 100% and He always will. God may move $100 billion to do something, but His position never changes, and He still has that $100 billion. The money is in a different person’s bank account, but it’s still God’s money.
As God has no limitation on His resources, He does not experience opportunity cost, nor does God engage in opportunity cost thinking. As you move into the Kingdom of God’s economic system, you can also experience God’s unlimited resources and freedom from opportunity cost thinking.
The first step in operating in God’s economic system is moving your thinking out of the world’s economic system, which is based on individual ownership of money, and over to God’s economy, which is fundamentally based on God’s ownership of all the world’s money.
Furthermore, God’s economic system does not function like the world’s economic system. The world’s economic system, based on individual ownership, functions by math. God’s economic system, based on His ownership, functions by movement. God does not spend money, God moves money.
Right now, all over the world, the world’s economic system is humming along, with money being added and subtracted from various places on a scale our minds could hardly fathom. But simultaneously, the Kingdom of God’s economic system is moving God’s money all around, from place to place, doing God’s will. God’s economic system isn’t even concerned with what’s happening in the world’s economic system, as it considers its available assets.
God wants churches built in some places. God wants Bibles printed in other places. God wants lots of people to have a safe place to live, a safe car to drive, a safe school to attend, and so on. God also wants many different things for your life. God’s will takes money. That’s all there is to it. But God is not adding it all up and checking the total against His current bank balance. Rather, God, by His Spirit, is guiding people to move some of His money around so that His will is accomplished.
God wants you to come out of the world’s economic system and into His economic system, and God wants to move money to you and through you.
There are some places, like my bank account, where God moves money in and out, and the account holder knows it. For example, several months ago God told me to start sending money to a particular organization. My worldly economic mindset at first thought God was asking me to spend my money for this purpose. But I fortunately realized that God wasn’t asking me to spend my money. He was asking to use my bank account to move money in a particular direction according to His will. God would supply the extra, and I was supposed to send it in a particular direction. To put it another way, God wasn’t asking me to pay for this, but He was asking me to believe for this. It’s amazing how I have had more than enough money to cover this amount each month. But this is just an example to help you see the idea.
Other people don’t know that they are really holding God’s money. Lots of Christians talk about the end times wealth transfer and how the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just, and those are great points. But for today we should just recognize that God owns all the world’s money. It doesn’t matter which bank account the money is in, it still belongs to God.
To truly live in the economic freedom God has for us, and to accomplish God’s will for our lives free of any financial constraints, we must change the way we think about money. We must move our lives over to the Kingdom of God’s economic system. We start this process by recognizing that God owns all the money and that God moves money rather than spend it.
It’s time to change the way we live in response to this new thinking. Most people look at their assets and calculate their net worth. They live according to their net worth and their income. They give (if they give at all) according to their net worth, their income, and God’s occasional direction. Even if they understand any of God’s financial principles, they incorporate them into their economic mindset which the world created. This can and should totally change for a Christian. But I do agree it can be a bit complicated.
In the area of health, a Christian can live almost totally apart from the world’s medical system. We can eat according to the Bible’s directions. We can live in health according to the Bible’s promises. We can live in immunity to sickness, disease or injury. I’m not saying many people do that, but it is definitely a Biblical possibility. We don’t ever need to consult doctors or anyone or anything other than the Bible when it comes to our health. This is a Biblical possibility.
But our economic lives must interact with the world’s economic system at some points. While we may learn to totally function in God’s economic system, we will still need to participate in the world’s economy. We need to have bank accounts. Investments are Biblically wise. Owning real estate is Biblically wise. Even credit cards are a convenience when used correctly (and point systems are nice). I suppose you could try to live without money and have God supply you food and water and shelter and all of that, but that’s going to be tough, and it would be very difficult to do everything God wants you to do in the world without using money.
So what we must do is allow God’s overarching, and superior, economic system to be the guiding light of our financial lives, and the economic system in which we think and operate. From that perspective and position, we can then function in the world’s economic system. And more than function, we can dominate it.
Before I go on, I want to briefly mention that this is not the teaching for you to receive your new Ferrari. I’m not saying God has any problems with that or those teachings, but that’s not our focus today. You can absolutely take God’s teachings about tithing, giving, saving, working, and other such economic matters, and increase financially. Psalm 35:27 says that God has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. But this is the teaching on how to see God’s provision for 100% of God’s will for your life. As I said at the beginning this teaching is to reveal God’s economic system to you, and help you begin operating therein. Freedom from the limitations of the world’s economic system will bless you tremendously, and this freedom will also greatly help you move forward in God’s plan for your life.
God has called some of you to funnel billions of dollars into the Kingdom of God, for Bibles, for world missions, for churches and schools for the Gospel. God has called some of you to travel the world ministering and operating for the Kingdom of God. God has called some of you to various works for His Kingdom that will require various amounts of money. God has all of the money you will ever need. God is not asking you to work for it. You just need to step into God’s economic system and believe for it.
When my clients evaluate a piece of property, they look at the price to determine whether it’s a good deal, but there is never a question about their ability to pay for it. They know that they have access to sufficient capital regardless of the price. There are no loan contingencies when my clients buy a property, if there is some problem with the debt they can just pay cash.
But understand what that does to their thinking. If you knew that you had access to unlimited capital, that the bank of Heaven was financing everything you do for God, what would you do? If you knew that God was financially backing all of your life, how would you live? It’s time that we pursue God’s will without any worry for the money, knowing that God will provide. God will just move some of His money over to you for everything God wants you to do. That is functioning in God’s economic system.
I want you to understand that you actually have unlimited money available to you. You have unlimited money at your disposal, you can do anything God wants regardless of the price, and you never need to have opportunity cost thinking again.
So how do we begin operating in God’s economic system? How do we position ourselves to participate in God’s money flow?
As I’ve said, God’s monetary system functions by movement. God wants to move money to us and God wants to move money through us. The money movement system in God’s Kingdom is called seedtime and harvest, or sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping is how we step into the economy of God’s Kingdom.
(2 Corinthians 9:8-11 KJV, Old English updates mine) “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever. Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God.”
I believe that passage sums up God’s thinking when it comes to money in the life of a Christian. Let’s break it down. God is able to bring everything you will ever need into your life. God wants you to be satisfied and content in every area of your life, so much so that you can begin operating in the good works He has planned for you. God is going to supply what you need, and God is going to also give you seed. As you sow, God is going to bring harvests into your life. As you sow and reap, you will be enriched in every area of your life. As you are enriched, you will continue sowing and giving money to the Kingdom of God. As you give money to God’s purposes, God receives the glory, and the other people being blessed will turn to God and thank Him.
My friends, that is the Kingdom of God’s economic system that is supposed to function in your life. That system should be functioning in all of our lives. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you can start functioning in that economic system today.
Here are a couple of additional verses on sowing and reaping we should consider.
(Luke 6:38 NIV) “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
(2 Corinthians 9:6 KJV, Old English updates mine) “But this I say, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
Most people who understand Biblical economics understand that giving and receiving (sowing and reaping) is the primary mechanism for Biblical increase. You can look at giving and receiving in terms of the world’s economic system, and that’s what most people do. You have x dollars, you give y, and then God supernaturally brings money to you and you end up with z (which is more than x). This is a Biblically accurate view and there is nothing inherently wrong with this. I do realize that sometimes people simply give out of love and from a generous heart, and that’s great too. But here we are talking about working in God’s economic system. Furthermore, you can take this system to a higher level.
Sowing and reaping isn’t just about addition and subtraction, sowing and reaping brings you into the Kingdom of God’s money flow. As I’ve described, there is a constant flow of money movement in the Kingdom of God. We must step into this money flow. Primarily we step into the money flow by sowing into God’s Kingdom and by obeying God’s directions.
God may call you to build an orphanage, for example. The moment you step out in obedience and get working, the money flow of God’s Kingdom is directed to you to start bringing in the resources you need.
Let me further discuss this important concept of obedience as a seed. In your financial life, you should have a constant process of sowing and reaping. As you give, you will increase financially. You will take the harvest, you will give more, and you will increase more. You have stepped into God’s economic system. But obedience is also a seed. Perhaps God tells you to go on a mission trip. Now you can trust God to pay for that mission trip. Perhaps God tells you to give $100 to a local feeding ministry. You can trust God to cover that $100 one way or another in your life. No matter what God tells you to do, big or small, God will provide for it. Your obedience places you into position to receive from God’s resources.
Remember the verse we read above that says “God ministers seed to the sower.” I think we all forget this sometimes. God gives us the seeds He wants us to sow. God provides for the things He wants us to do. Put some of these verses together. God doesn’t need a bull from our stall or goats from our pens if He wants something to eat. God already has the cattle. God is not asking us to spend our money on His Kingdom. Rather, God is asking us to trust Him and allow Him to bring us into His Kingdom’s money flow. God is asking us to step out in faith on His directions, as that brings us into position to receive from His Kingdom.
Everything you do under God’s direction is a seed. When God gives you a direction, He has already ministered the seed to you (even if you can’t see it). God will never tell us to do something that He won’t help us do, He will never tell us to do something impossible or give something we can’t. Again, when God calls on the seed, He has already ministered it to you.
Sometimes we don’t realize that the seed we are holding was already a gift from God, we don’t realize that God has already ministered the seed to us. But understanding these things will help us participate in sowing and reaping. For example, “God, you are telling me to sow this extra $100 that I have in my account now. OK. I realize that this extra $100 was actually a seed you ministered to me, and that you want me to participate in your system. I will sow this seed as you direct, and I will do so in faith for a harvest. Furthermore, when the harvest comes in, as a good farmer, I will use some of the harvest as new seed.” I believe we should regard everything we have and everything we are as a potential seed God has ministered to us, and stand ready to sow it at His direction.
We must realize that when God directs a seed God is also thinking about our harvest for that seed. When God tells you to do something or give something, He is inviting you into the Kingdom’s economic flow. He has given you a seed, He wants you to sow it, and He is going to bring you a harvest. As you sow and reap over and over, in money and obedience to His other directions, your entire life will move into the Kingdom of God’s system, and you will receive harvests of God’s goodness in every area of your life.
So God will direct you to sow seeds of money and seeds of obedience to His other directions. And you can begin operating in God’s seedtime and harvest system today. I don’t care how little you have, you can always start obeying God. Now don’t let this worry you or begin putting pressure on you in any way. Just ask God to show you what to sow. If you don’t tithe, God may lead you to begin tithing. God may lead you to give money to other places. Don’t look at this as God taking your money. Recognize this as God inviting you into His Kingdom’s economic system.
Be listening for God to call for other types of obedience seed. Perhaps God tells you to put down the secular music or the wrong shows on Netflix. I’ve gotten both of those. God isn’t trying to ruin your life, God is trying to help you. God knows those things are wrong for your thinking. God is calling you up to another level of existence. God wants you to obey in this area, and then you will harvest more directions of His will in your life, and the more of His will you experience, the better every area of your life will be.
Remember, God doesn’t think mathematically like we do when it comes to money. So don’t look at God’s directions to sow money like God putting down a big minus in your bank account. As God moves this money through our lives, we are going to financially increase. God wants you to sow and God wants you to reap. Moreover, God wants you to sow in ways that bless others and bring them to Jesus. Isn’t this wonderful?
So again, and this is so important, you must look at God’s giving directions as gain and not loss, as opportunities for increase. Look at such directions like investment advice from the universe’s greatest financial advisor. He doesn’t even have a minimum requirement to open an account!
Make sure to receive God’s directions for other seeds the same way. God’s directions about your entertainment, your relationships, your activities. They may feel like loss when God tells you to give things up, as He does for all of us. But these directions are always so that God can take our lives to a better place. The harvest for these seeds is always a better existence, an existence that contributes to our gifts and callings and God’s overall plan for our lives.
Keeping in mind both monetary and obedience seeds, let us quickly look at three verses about sowing and reaping to learn a little more.
(Ecclesiastes 11:6 NIV) “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.”
(Ecclesiastes 11:4 KJV, Old English updates mine) “He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.”
The more you sow, the more you reap. The more you sow and reap, the more you are participating in God’s economic system. Sow constantly. Look for opportunities to sow every day. Constantly stay in tune with God’s Spirit for His directions. Don’t allow your sowing and reaping to be influenced by external economic issues. Does it look like you are having a slow month, sow anyway. Do the macroeconomic indicators suggest tough times are ahead, keep sowing.
If you stop sowing and reaping, you exit the Kingdom’s money flow. If you keep sowing and reaping, you remain in the Kingdom’s money flow. The Kingdom’s economic system is recession proof. God can move unlimited money into your life regardless of what’s going on in the world’s financial system. Sowing and reaping, participating in the Kingdom’s money flow, is actually the key that frees you from the world’s economic system. Never again will you worry about money, never again will the world’s economic indicators cause you to fear.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV) “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
(Matthew 6:31-33 NIV) “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
(Philippians 4:19 NIV) “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
God does not want you to worry about money. God does not worry about earning money or producing money either. Of course we must work, but the marriage between our job and our finances must end. The marriage between our salary and our financial capacity must end. You are supposed to work at the good works that God has planned for you (Ephesians 2:10). And you are supposed to engage in sowing and reaping so that you can be enriched in everything to all bountifulness.
As you sow, you must stand in true Biblical faith for your harvest. Listen to my other teachings on faith. Biblical faith is required to operate in God’s Kingdom. God’s Word says if you sow you will reap. The more you sow, the more you reap. A seed creates a pull on the harvest in the spiritual realm. As you stand in faith, there is an unbreakable bond between the seed and the harvest. Keep a mental image of the Kingdom’s money flow constantly before you. When you sow any kind of seed, immediately see your harvest coming into your life. Stand in faith for your harvest.
So today I want you to understand that God owns all the world’s money. I also want you to understand that God doesn’t spend money, He moves it. Furthermore, we are invited into the Kingdom of God’s economy, God’s money movement system. God’s money movement system operates by sowing and reaping, seedtime and harvest. Obedience to God’s directions (whether it’s a direction to give money or any other direction) is the seed we sow that brings us into the Kingdom of God’s money flow, it’s the seed that brings the harvest. God wants to move money to us and God wants to move money through us. As you begin living in the Kingdom of God’s economy, you are freed from opportunity cost thinking. You have unlimited resources at your disposal. Even if God’s plans for your life required 100% of the world’s money, He would just flow it to you and through you over and over again for His will to be accomplished. When we live in God’s directions for our lives, we never need to worry about money again.
As a child I grew up around money and learning about money. My father was a CPA and a real estate developer, and I saw him reading financial books and listening to financial teachings. As he grew in his relationship with God and in his ministry, he turned his attention to understanding Godly economics. Unfortunately, in the real estate world (and in most of the world’s economic system) debt is king. I saw my father lose practically everything in the 80’s and again in the 2000’s, as the real estate market crashes, and his debt positions, ruined his finances. These experiences, by the way, created both fear of lack and hesitation about investments in my mind, which I’m still working on today.
When my father’s real estate business collapsed around 2009, I had to begin practicing law full time. I had run his office construction business, and practiced law very little. As God would have it, one of my father’s friends, an apartment developer, needed an attorney. This man gave me a chance and began teaching me about real estate finance as I practiced real estate law for him. Not long after that, another man retired from Wall Street and decided to start buying apartment buildings around the country. In short, my legal career, for the past 10 years, has basically been working for these two men and three others. My law practice is God, me and my computer. From my home office, I have now been primary transaction counsel on over $3 billion dollars in commercial real estate transactions.
By no means do I share those facts to brag. Who really cares what I do or how much I’ve done it. My point is that I’ve been exposed to serious wealth in my life, both the accumulation of significant wealth and the loss of significant wealth. I’ve also been exposed to a fair amount of financial education and thinking, both secular and Christian.
The first true financial revelation I received from God happened in a peculiar way. I heard about a pastor of a major church in a major city who drove a Lexus (and the cheapest model Lexus at that). This didn’t bother me at all, but another person was bashing the pastor for driving such a car, as a man in the ministry. The Lord used this interaction to teach me one of the most important principles of Kingdom economics – and the starting point for our discussion today – God does not experience opportunity cost.
(Econlib.org) “Opportunity cost refers to what you have to give up to buy what you want in terms of other goods or services.”
“Directly or indirectly, opportunity cost underpins the majority of day-to-day economic decisions that are made in society.” (Fernando, Jason. “Opportunity Cost”. Investopedia.”)
Anyone whose mind hasn’t been freed to God’s economic system lives with a working knowledge of opportunity cost, even if you have never heard the term. For most people, opportunity cost presents itself something like this, “If I buy that new car, I may not have enough money for my other living expenses.” An easier alternative might be, “if I eat at that restaurant tonight, I will need to eat my meals at home for the rest of the week.”
We must choose where to spend our money, and the entire reason for this choice is the limitations on our resources.
Depending on your financial level, your opportunity costs may sound very differently. My clients, for example, have virtually unlimited access to capital and debt, so they are not impacted by opportunity cost as most people. However, such decisions still present themselves, “If I spend $20 million on this apartment complex, then I will need to raise capital to buy the other one, rather than using available cash from my last sale.”
When people bash Christian preachers for having nice things, there are two reasons they do so. First, they may feel that such Christians are not living “like Christ” and Christ would have them poor. We are not going to waste much time with that unbiblical opinion. Christ suffered many things so we don’t have to, all the effects of the curse of sin, including poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). God does not call Christians to poverty, it’s just that simple.
The other reason people bash Christians for having nice things or any luxury is an opportunity cost mindset. “If that preacher has that Lexus, then some part of the Kingdom of God did without.” “If the church used the tithes for the preacher’s car, then the church can’t have the feeding ministry, or the single parent ministry (or something like that).” People think that if the church spends money on one thing, then the church has less money to spend on other things. That is an opportunity cost mindset, and honestly it’s understandable given the pervasiveness of opportunity cost thinking in the world today. People impose opportunity cost thinking on the church because they assume that the church has limited resources, as they do.
However, Christians, and God’s Church, were meant to be free from opportunity cost thinking. In fact, Christians have access to unlimited resources. The church can pay for the Pastor to have a nice car, a nice house, all the programs that God wants for that church, and still have money in the bank. All of this is possible in God’s economic system.
We must first understand that God owns the world.
(Psalms 50:7-12 NIV) “Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God. I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.”
We could spend a long time talking about this fascinating and powerful passage, but, as usual, let’s try to keep it simple. God very clearly details His ownership of the world and everything in it. But notice also God says that if He were hungry, He would not call us for one of our animals. God needs nothing from us. In fact, in addition to owning the world and everything therein, God owns all the world’s money.
(Haggai 2:6-8 NIV) “”This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
If God wants to do something in the world, He does not need to raise capital from Christians to do it. He certainly doesn’t need to take out a loan. The offering plate is not a welfare system for the Kingdom of God. People do not think this way, they do not realize these truths, and they think that God is limited by the money that we humans put in His hands. While that makes a lot of sense to our minds that are basically enslaved to the world’s economic system, that thinking is unbiblical.
So now that we understand God owns all the money, we can easily understand that God doesn’t spend money the way that we do. If God spends $1 million to build a new church, God does not have $1 million less. God may have used $1 million of His dollars in a certain way, but they are still His $1 million. So we must understand this truth – God doesn’t really spend money, He moves it.
Furthermore, as God doesn’t spend money, God is not subject to a mathematical analysis of his financial position. God’s financial position never changes. He owns 100% and He always will. God may move $100 billion to do something, but His position never changes, and He still has that $100 billion. The money is in a different person’s bank account, but it’s still God’s money.
As God has no limitation on His resources, He does not experience opportunity cost, nor does God engage in opportunity cost thinking. As you move into the Kingdom of God’s economic system, you can also experience God’s unlimited resources and freedom from opportunity cost thinking.
The first step in operating in God’s economic system is moving your thinking out of the world’s economic system, which is based on individual ownership of money, and over to God’s economy, which is fundamentally based on God’s ownership of all the world’s money.
Furthermore, God’s economic system does not function like the world’s economic system. The world’s economic system, based on individual ownership, functions by math. God’s economic system, based on His ownership, functions by movement. God does not spend money, God moves money.
Right now, all over the world, the world’s economic system is humming along, with money being added and subtracted from various places on a scale our minds could hardly fathom. But simultaneously, the Kingdom of God’s economic system is moving God’s money all around, from place to place, doing God’s will. God’s economic system isn’t even concerned with what’s happening in the world’s economic system, as it considers its available assets.
God wants churches built in some places. God wants Bibles printed in other places. God wants lots of people to have a safe place to live, a safe car to drive, a safe school to attend, and so on. God also wants many different things for your life. God’s will takes money. That’s all there is to it. But God is not adding it all up and checking the total against His current bank balance. Rather, God, by His Spirit, is guiding people to move some of His money around so that His will is accomplished.
God wants you to come out of the world’s economic system and into His economic system, and God wants to move money to you and through you.
There are some places, like my bank account, where God moves money in and out, and the account holder knows it. For example, several months ago God told me to start sending money to a particular organization. My worldly economic mindset at first thought God was asking me to spend my money for this purpose. But I fortunately realized that God wasn’t asking me to spend my money. He was asking to use my bank account to move money in a particular direction according to His will. God would supply the extra, and I was supposed to send it in a particular direction. To put it another way, God wasn’t asking me to pay for this, but He was asking me to believe for this. It’s amazing how I have had more than enough money to cover this amount each month. But this is just an example to help you see the idea.
Other people don’t know that they are really holding God’s money. Lots of Christians talk about the end times wealth transfer and how the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just, and those are great points. But for today we should just recognize that God owns all the world’s money. It doesn’t matter which bank account the money is in, it still belongs to God.
To truly live in the economic freedom God has for us, and to accomplish God’s will for our lives free of any financial constraints, we must change the way we think about money. We must move our lives over to the Kingdom of God’s economic system. We start this process by recognizing that God owns all the money and that God moves money rather than spend it.
It’s time to change the way we live in response to this new thinking. Most people look at their assets and calculate their net worth. They live according to their net worth and their income. They give (if they give at all) according to their net worth, their income, and God’s occasional direction. Even if they understand any of God’s financial principles, they incorporate them into their economic mindset which the world created. This can and should totally change for a Christian. But I do agree it can be a bit complicated.
In the area of health, a Christian can live almost totally apart from the world’s medical system. We can eat according to the Bible’s directions. We can live in health according to the Bible’s promises. We can live in immunity to sickness, disease or injury. I’m not saying many people do that, but it is definitely a Biblical possibility. We don’t ever need to consult doctors or anyone or anything other than the Bible when it comes to our health. This is a Biblical possibility.
But our economic lives must interact with the world’s economic system at some points. While we may learn to totally function in God’s economic system, we will still need to participate in the world’s economy. We need to have bank accounts. Investments are Biblically wise. Owning real estate is Biblically wise. Even credit cards are a convenience when used correctly (and point systems are nice). I suppose you could try to live without money and have God supply you food and water and shelter and all of that, but that’s going to be tough, and it would be very difficult to do everything God wants you to do in the world without using money.
So what we must do is allow God’s overarching, and superior, economic system to be the guiding light of our financial lives, and the economic system in which we think and operate. From that perspective and position, we can then function in the world’s economic system. And more than function, we can dominate it.
Before I go on, I want to briefly mention that this is not the teaching for you to receive your new Ferrari. I’m not saying God has any problems with that or those teachings, but that’s not our focus today. You can absolutely take God’s teachings about tithing, giving, saving, working, and other such economic matters, and increase financially. Psalm 35:27 says that God has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. But this is the teaching on how to see God’s provision for 100% of God’s will for your life. As I said at the beginning this teaching is to reveal God’s economic system to you, and help you begin operating therein. Freedom from the limitations of the world’s economic system will bless you tremendously, and this freedom will also greatly help you move forward in God’s plan for your life.
God has called some of you to funnel billions of dollars into the Kingdom of God, for Bibles, for world missions, for churches and schools for the Gospel. God has called some of you to travel the world ministering and operating for the Kingdom of God. God has called some of you to various works for His Kingdom that will require various amounts of money. God has all of the money you will ever need. God is not asking you to work for it. You just need to step into God’s economic system and believe for it.
When my clients evaluate a piece of property, they look at the price to determine whether it’s a good deal, but there is never a question about their ability to pay for it. They know that they have access to sufficient capital regardless of the price. There are no loan contingencies when my clients buy a property, if there is some problem with the debt they can just pay cash.
But understand what that does to their thinking. If you knew that you had access to unlimited capital, that the bank of Heaven was financing everything you do for God, what would you do? If you knew that God was financially backing all of your life, how would you live? It’s time that we pursue God’s will without any worry for the money, knowing that God will provide. God will just move some of His money over to you for everything God wants you to do. That is functioning in God’s economic system.
I want you to understand that you actually have unlimited money available to you. You have unlimited money at your disposal, you can do anything God wants regardless of the price, and you never need to have opportunity cost thinking again.
So how do we begin operating in God’s economic system? How do we position ourselves to participate in God’s money flow?
As I’ve said, God’s monetary system functions by movement. God wants to move money to us and God wants to move money through us. The money movement system in God’s Kingdom is called seedtime and harvest, or sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping is how we step into the economy of God’s Kingdom.
(2 Corinthians 9:8-11 KJV, Old English updates mine) “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever. Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God.”
I believe that passage sums up God’s thinking when it comes to money in the life of a Christian. Let’s break it down. God is able to bring everything you will ever need into your life. God wants you to be satisfied and content in every area of your life, so much so that you can begin operating in the good works He has planned for you. God is going to supply what you need, and God is going to also give you seed. As you sow, God is going to bring harvests into your life. As you sow and reap, you will be enriched in every area of your life. As you are enriched, you will continue sowing and giving money to the Kingdom of God. As you give money to God’s purposes, God receives the glory, and the other people being blessed will turn to God and thank Him.
My friends, that is the Kingdom of God’s economic system that is supposed to function in your life. That system should be functioning in all of our lives. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you can start functioning in that economic system today.
Here are a couple of additional verses on sowing and reaping we should consider.
(Luke 6:38 NIV) “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
(2 Corinthians 9:6 KJV, Old English updates mine) “But this I say, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
Most people who understand Biblical economics understand that giving and receiving (sowing and reaping) is the primary mechanism for Biblical increase. You can look at giving and receiving in terms of the world’s economic system, and that’s what most people do. You have x dollars, you give y, and then God supernaturally brings money to you and you end up with z (which is more than x). This is a Biblically accurate view and there is nothing inherently wrong with this. I do realize that sometimes people simply give out of love and from a generous heart, and that’s great too. But here we are talking about working in God’s economic system. Furthermore, you can take this system to a higher level.
Sowing and reaping isn’t just about addition and subtraction, sowing and reaping brings you into the Kingdom of God’s money flow. As I’ve described, there is a constant flow of money movement in the Kingdom of God. We must step into this money flow. Primarily we step into the money flow by sowing into God’s Kingdom and by obeying God’s directions.
God may call you to build an orphanage, for example. The moment you step out in obedience and get working, the money flow of God’s Kingdom is directed to you to start bringing in the resources you need.
Let me further discuss this important concept of obedience as a seed. In your financial life, you should have a constant process of sowing and reaping. As you give, you will increase financially. You will take the harvest, you will give more, and you will increase more. You have stepped into God’s economic system. But obedience is also a seed. Perhaps God tells you to go on a mission trip. Now you can trust God to pay for that mission trip. Perhaps God tells you to give $100 to a local feeding ministry. You can trust God to cover that $100 one way or another in your life. No matter what God tells you to do, big or small, God will provide for it. Your obedience places you into position to receive from God’s resources.
Remember the verse we read above that says “God ministers seed to the sower.” I think we all forget this sometimes. God gives us the seeds He wants us to sow. God provides for the things He wants us to do. Put some of these verses together. God doesn’t need a bull from our stall or goats from our pens if He wants something to eat. God already has the cattle. God is not asking us to spend our money on His Kingdom. Rather, God is asking us to trust Him and allow Him to bring us into His Kingdom’s money flow. God is asking us to step out in faith on His directions, as that brings us into position to receive from His Kingdom.
Everything you do under God’s direction is a seed. When God gives you a direction, He has already ministered the seed to you (even if you can’t see it). God will never tell us to do something that He won’t help us do, He will never tell us to do something impossible or give something we can’t. Again, when God calls on the seed, He has already ministered it to you.
Sometimes we don’t realize that the seed we are holding was already a gift from God, we don’t realize that God has already ministered the seed to us. But understanding these things will help us participate in sowing and reaping. For example, “God, you are telling me to sow this extra $100 that I have in my account now. OK. I realize that this extra $100 was actually a seed you ministered to me, and that you want me to participate in your system. I will sow this seed as you direct, and I will do so in faith for a harvest. Furthermore, when the harvest comes in, as a good farmer, I will use some of the harvest as new seed.” I believe we should regard everything we have and everything we are as a potential seed God has ministered to us, and stand ready to sow it at His direction.
We must realize that when God directs a seed God is also thinking about our harvest for that seed. When God tells you to do something or give something, He is inviting you into the Kingdom’s economic flow. He has given you a seed, He wants you to sow it, and He is going to bring you a harvest. As you sow and reap over and over, in money and obedience to His other directions, your entire life will move into the Kingdom of God’s system, and you will receive harvests of God’s goodness in every area of your life.
So God will direct you to sow seeds of money and seeds of obedience to His other directions. And you can begin operating in God’s seedtime and harvest system today. I don’t care how little you have, you can always start obeying God. Now don’t let this worry you or begin putting pressure on you in any way. Just ask God to show you what to sow. If you don’t tithe, God may lead you to begin tithing. God may lead you to give money to other places. Don’t look at this as God taking your money. Recognize this as God inviting you into His Kingdom’s economic system.
Be listening for God to call for other types of obedience seed. Perhaps God tells you to put down the secular music or the wrong shows on Netflix. I’ve gotten both of those. God isn’t trying to ruin your life, God is trying to help you. God knows those things are wrong for your thinking. God is calling you up to another level of existence. God wants you to obey in this area, and then you will harvest more directions of His will in your life, and the more of His will you experience, the better every area of your life will be.
Remember, God doesn’t think mathematically like we do when it comes to money. So don’t look at God’s directions to sow money like God putting down a big minus in your bank account. As God moves this money through our lives, we are going to financially increase. God wants you to sow and God wants you to reap. Moreover, God wants you to sow in ways that bless others and bring them to Jesus. Isn’t this wonderful?
So again, and this is so important, you must look at God’s giving directions as gain and not loss, as opportunities for increase. Look at such directions like investment advice from the universe’s greatest financial advisor. He doesn’t even have a minimum requirement to open an account!
Make sure to receive God’s directions for other seeds the same way. God’s directions about your entertainment, your relationships, your activities. They may feel like loss when God tells you to give things up, as He does for all of us. But these directions are always so that God can take our lives to a better place. The harvest for these seeds is always a better existence, an existence that contributes to our gifts and callings and God’s overall plan for our lives.
Keeping in mind both monetary and obedience seeds, let us quickly look at three verses about sowing and reaping to learn a little more.
(Ecclesiastes 11:6 NIV) “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.”
(Ecclesiastes 11:4 KJV, Old English updates mine) “He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.”
The more you sow, the more you reap. The more you sow and reap, the more you are participating in God’s economic system. Sow constantly. Look for opportunities to sow every day. Constantly stay in tune with God’s Spirit for His directions. Don’t allow your sowing and reaping to be influenced by external economic issues. Does it look like you are having a slow month, sow anyway. Do the macroeconomic indicators suggest tough times are ahead, keep sowing.
If you stop sowing and reaping, you exit the Kingdom’s money flow. If you keep sowing and reaping, you remain in the Kingdom’s money flow. The Kingdom’s economic system is recession proof. God can move unlimited money into your life regardless of what’s going on in the world’s financial system. Sowing and reaping, participating in the Kingdom’s money flow, is actually the key that frees you from the world’s economic system. Never again will you worry about money, never again will the world’s economic indicators cause you to fear.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV) “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
(Matthew 6:31-33 NIV) “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
(Philippians 4:19 NIV) “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
God does not want you to worry about money. God does not worry about earning money or producing money either. Of course we must work, but the marriage between our job and our finances must end. The marriage between our salary and our financial capacity must end. You are supposed to work at the good works that God has planned for you (Ephesians 2:10). And you are supposed to engage in sowing and reaping so that you can be enriched in everything to all bountifulness.
As you sow, you must stand in true Biblical faith for your harvest. Listen to my other teachings on faith. Biblical faith is required to operate in God’s Kingdom. God’s Word says if you sow you will reap. The more you sow, the more you reap. A seed creates a pull on the harvest in the spiritual realm. As you stand in faith, there is an unbreakable bond between the seed and the harvest. Keep a mental image of the Kingdom’s money flow constantly before you. When you sow any kind of seed, immediately see your harvest coming into your life. Stand in faith for your harvest.
So today I want you to understand that God owns all the world’s money. I also want you to understand that God doesn’t spend money, He moves it. Furthermore, we are invited into the Kingdom of God’s economy, God’s money movement system. God’s money movement system operates by sowing and reaping, seedtime and harvest. Obedience to God’s directions (whether it’s a direction to give money or any other direction) is the seed we sow that brings us into the Kingdom of God’s money flow, it’s the seed that brings the harvest. God wants to move money to us and God wants to move money through us. As you begin living in the Kingdom of God’s economy, you are freed from opportunity cost thinking. You have unlimited resources at your disposal. Even if God’s plans for your life required 100% of the world’s money, He would just flow it to you and through you over and over again for His will to be accomplished. When we live in God’s directions for our lives, we never need to worry about money again.
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