Divine Provision Made Easy

            Hello, my friends, I hope you have all been well.  Let me start by saying that if any of you read this or listen to this (or any of my teachings) and you ever want to talk about it, please know that I’m here for you and I would love to hear from you.  Also, if this blesses you or encourages you, please share it, leave a comment or review, subscribe, follow, etc.

This May I will reach 22 years in focusing on God’s will for my life.  Let me be the first to say that I should be farther along, I should have done more, and I should have borne a lot more fruit.  I feel pretty bad about that, but the only thing I can do is press on and try to do better.  When I first turned my life to the Lord, in May of 2004, I was attending Dr. Creflo Dollar’s church in Atlanta.  It’s a great church and above all they emphasized studying God’s Word to live God’s way.  Hopefully you have seen that concept emanating from my life over the years.

Along with studying God’s Word, I’ve also read a lot of books about God’s Word and various aspects of Christian living – parenting for Christians, marriage for Christians, finances for Christians, divine healing, etc., etc. There are countless Christian books out there covering every aspect of life.  Some are good and some aren’t so good, but there is no denying how many there are.  I’ve even written a few myself. 

            As much as I enjoy studying and reading, I do find myself pushing back against the pressure to overcomplicate everything.  Take divine healing, for example, which we might describe as accessing God’s power to see improvement in your body.  There are many books on the subject, and countless sermons.  One could study, read and listen for years and still not know everything that has been said.  But how much do I really need to know to experience divine healing?  How much do I have to understand to receive God’s will for my life?  Does God require that I have a doctorate level understanding in all of these subjects to experience what He has already promised me, or what is my inheritance? 

I hope you see where I’m going with this.  It should be easier.  I know so many people who haven’t experienced what I know God wants them to have.  I know what God wants them to have because I know what the Bible says God wants me to have, and all of God’s promises are available to us all.  If God wants me healthy then He wants you healthy.  If God wants me prospered then He wants you prospered.  And the same is true for every other subject.  God wants good things for me in every area of my life, and that is true for all of us. 

So how can we make these subjects easier to understand?  How can we make it easier to receive what the Bible promises for our lives?  These are hard questions, and I certainly don’t have all the answers.  But I do want to try to help.  What are the key principles for an area that we need to understand?  How can we explain them simply, so that even a child could understand them?  Maybe that’s a tall order, but I want to try.  I want to help people live in God’s promises, and I think part of that is helping people easily understand the applicable principles for a given promise.  Today we will focus on finances.

Let’s start with the obvious reality.  Many very rich people don’t think or care about God at all.  I am a real estate lawyer and one of my clients is agnostic.  Of course, I pray for his salvation.  But as of our last discussion, he doesn’t believe in God, and any idea of “god” has no impact on his life.  He is also very rich.  He doesn’t read the Bible, let alone any Christian books, and he doesn’t operate his finances according to Biblical principles.  And there are a lot of very rich people like him.  We must conclude that you don’t need to understand the Bible’s financial teachings to prosper in the world’s economic system.  I’m certainly not suggesting you approach your finances that way, but it’s just a fact.

If you want, you could study the world’s financial system, start working, start investing, start saving, and doing all the other things the world’s financial system suggests, and you could begin prospering.  Now, if you do that, there are no guarantees it will work out, and you could end up broke.  But it might work for you, and if you work hard it’s very possible that it will.

            A Christian can fully embrace the world’s economic system and try to make money that way.  I know a lot of Christians that do that.  I’m not trying to criticize anyone, we are simply discussing a subject here.  A Christian can prosper in the world’s financial system.  Now that approach does carry a lot of risks, and that Christian would be subject to all of the risk exposure in the world’s financial system, in addition to some spiritual risk exposure, but that’s still an option for a Christian.

            The alternative for a Christian is the Bible’s financial system and the Bible’s financial teachings.  This is what we hear when we go to church and the pastor talks about tithing or giving or otherwise sharing our resources with the church and its ministries.  The preacher will present Bible verses about money and try to get us to give.  I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this approach.  They should teach us the Bible’s economic principles, and they should encourage us to give. 

            However, I think we could do a better job in helping Christians understand God’s economic system as a whole.  Can we show the big picture so that we can see how it all works together?  And can we do this without needing long books or hours and hours of study?  I’m not saying that there are no complexities to this topic or that it won’t take any effort to understand it, but I am saying we should be able to understand God’s promises and how they work pretty easily.

(Deuteronomy 28:1-8 NKJV) "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. "The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy is a very interesting book.  Essentially, Moses is recapping what happened to the Israelites as they made their way from Egypt to the Promised Land, and Moses is giving them instructions for living in the Promised Land.  A lot of these passages clearly explain God’s will for their lives, and they also help us understand God’s will for our lives today.  God wants to bless every area of our lives.  If we will live God’s way, we will see His blessings.  While there are some important differences between their relationship with God, and the one we have now, as Christians, passages like this still show us God’s will. 

            Consider some of what this passage says about finances.  God will bless their baskets and kneading bowls.  God will bless the produce of their ground and their herds.  God will bless their storehouses, and everything to which they set their hands.  Notice the paradigm here.  God will bless their work.  God will bless their jobs.  God will bless their investments.  God will bless their savings.  Yes, when they conquered the land they did take houses they didn’t build and gardens they didn’t plant, but if they wanted to keep prospering and having enough they had to work.

            This is the first principle for our discussion today.  When you are looking for God’s financial blessings, you should look for them to come through your work, through your savings, through your investments, etc.  While God does miraculously provide sometimes by His grace (free groceries, a free car, etc.), that’s not God’s best.  God wants you to operate in the world’s financial system, but He wants you to do it His way and according to His principles.  When you do that, you will have God’s blessing on your financial endeavors, and you will succeed. 

            It’s very important to understand this.  The Bible does not present the idea that you can sit around all day and God will miraculously provide for your needs.  Maybe that would be nice, but it doesn’t work that way.  If you want to see God’s blessings on your finances, you need to be out there doing something.  You need to have your hand to something that God can bless.

            Let’s take a moment and talk about a few Christian realities and how they interact with these promises from Deuteronomy.

(2 Corinthians 1:20 NKJV) For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

(Hebrews 6:11-12 NKJV) And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

(Romans 4:16 NKJV) Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all[.]

            All of God’s promises for the Israelites, before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, were conditional.  If they obeyed the law, they received the promises.  Now even that isn’t perfectly right to say, because they could never perfectly obey the law.  All of the promises were really from God’s grace and love.  However, the Old Testament is clear that when the Israelites obeyed God they received God’s blessings, and when they didn’t God punished them.

            However, when Christ went to the Cross, He received all of the punishment for sin that God would ever need to give.  When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that punishment Jesus received become applied to our account, so to speak.  He received all the punishment, so we don’t ever need to be punished.  Therefore, our receiving God’s blessings and promises is no longer dependent on our behavior.  All of the promises in Christ are yes to us.  All of the promises are ours now.  Jesus earned them, and, as we are in Christ, they are completely available to us now.  Furthermore, when we receive the promises it brings glory to God.

            Also, we “inherit” the promises.  The promises are our inheritance.  The moment you become a Christian God’s promises become your possession.  You own them.  They are yours.  But you must exercise faith and patience to receive them.  You don’t work to earn them.  They are gifts of God’s grace (and that’s the point of Romans 4:16).  This is how God makes sure you get them.  You don’t try to earn them, they are grace and they are inheritance.  But you must believe them.  You must have faith.  “Therefore it is of faith.”  

            So let’s mark this down as our second key principle, God’s financial promises and blessings are yours, but you receive them through faith and patience.  To put it simply, faith is perfect, doubtless belief in God’s Word, and patience is standing firm in that faith over a period of time until you see the physical manifestation of those promises.

            In fact, if you are a Christian, God’s blessing is on your job now.  God’s blessing is on your investments now.  God’s blessing is on your savings now.  Those blessings are your truth, but you need faith and patience to see them come into the natural realm.  So let’s join together in this faith right now.  Say it with me, “In Jesus, Name, my job is blessed, my investments are blessed, my storehouses are blessed.  Everything I put my hand to is blessed.  God’s blessings are on every aspect of my financial life, and they are all increasing. Amen” 

            Let’s assume none of that appears in the natural realm right now.  No surprise if you haven’t had faith in God’s promises.  But don’t worry about it.  We have engaged our faith starting right now, and the power of God is flowing in the spiritual realm to every aspect of our financial lives right now.  Now, we will stay in patience and we will see the physical manifestation of these blessings soon enough.

            Now let’s briefly cover a very controversial point, that your prosperity is provided for in Christ’s atonement.

(2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV) For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

            What an amazing verse, but it makes perfect sense.  A moment ago we read that financial prosperity is a blessing from God.   On the other hand, poverty is a curse.  Remember that poverty was one of the original curses from the Garden of Eden.  After Adam and Eve fell God said, in Genesis 3:17-19, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.”  

In Christ, we are redeemed from the curse.  The curse of sickness, the curse of poverty, the curse of death, all of the curses, we are redeemed from them all.  Christ became sickness so we could be healed (that’s in Isaiah 53).  Christ became sin so that we could become righteous (that’s in 2 Corinthians 5:21).  And Christ became poor so that we might be rich. 

How are we going to become rich?  We will become rich through God’s blessings on our financial lives.  We will stand in faith and patience regarding God’s financial promises, we will work and conduct our financial affairs in a Godly manner, and we will see financial increase come into our lives because of God’s blessings. 

Now that paradigm that I just described is a very important paradigm for you to remember.  I would call it the foundation layer for receiving all of God’s promises.  You learn the promises you have in the Bible, you stand in faith and patience for them, and you conduct your life in a Godly manner.  If you live according to this paradigm alone, you will be doing great.  But you must also recognize the specifics of Godly living associated with the various aspects of your life.

For example, would anyone argue that you can live in God’s best for your physical body while smoking, drinking and eating junk food every day?  I don’t think anyone would argue for that, but why doesn’t it work?  You have to recognize the realities of this physical world.  You have a physical body.  It’s exposed to all sorts of food, environmental issues, and physical issues every day.  God has promises for your body, but they work in connection with God’s directions for correct living (for example, don’t work against your body with sexual sin, as discussed in 1 Corinthians 6). 

So we have promises, and we need to have faith and patience for those promises.  But we also need to live according to God’s directions.  If I treat my wife right and have faith in God’s marriage promises, I will have a good marriage.  If I treat my body right and have faith in God’s physical promises, I will have a good physical life.  On and on we could go.

So what about finances?  We have faith in God’s financial promises, and we understand that we need to work, but there are other key principles we must understand.

(2 Corinthians 9:6-11 NKJV) But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: "he has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

The master principle for God’s financial system is seedtime and harvest, or sowing and reaping.  God doesn’t want you to keep all of the money you earn for yourself, rather, God wants you to share your money with others.  Fundamentally, God wants you to share your money with others as He uses you to help provide for them and to show them His love and goodness.

            Remember a very important idea that we have explored before in our time together.  God wants to work through you to show His love and grace to the world.  One major way God wants to do that is through your giving.  God wants to bring money to you, and God wants to send money through you.  And that, my friends, is the most important principle of Biblical economics.

            God considers your financial gifts as seeds.  If you sow a lot of seed you can expect a big harvest.  If you only sow a few seeds you can expect a small harvest.  That’s how it is in natural farming and that’s how it is in kingdom financial farming.  You need to sow a lot of seed if you want a big harvest.

            Furthermore, look at these promises in this passage.  God wants you to always have all sufficiency in all things, so that you have an abundance for every good work.  God wants you to always have an abundance.  God wants you to have an abundance so you can always share with others.  If you don’t share your finances with others, you aren’t living in God’s economic system.  If you don’t sow any seeds, you won’t reap any harvest.  I’m not saying that God won’t provide for you, and I’m not even saying that God’s financial blessings won’t work for you, because we don’t earn them.  But I am saying that you will never enter into God’s miraculous financial provision. 

            Maybe you can work the world’s system and do well.  Maybe you can keep all your money for yourself and God will still provide for you.  But until you start sowing and reaping, you will never experience the truly miraculous increase from God’s financial system.  Furthermore, you will definitely miss out on God’s financial system and everything God wants to do through your giving.  God doesn’t want you to just write checks.  He wants to introduce you to people.  He wants you to get excited about His Kingdom’s works in the world.  He wants you to reap big harvests on your seed.  Your giving is meant to be a major blessing both to you and to others.  In fact, when you are giving, you are really giving to others and blessing yourself simultaneously. 

            Note that in 2 Corinthians 9:7 God says He loves a cheerful giver.  Of course, God loves everyone.  But this says God loves it when you give cheerfully.  I heard Andrew Wommack talk about this and it has really helped me.  I highly recommend his book called “Financial Stewardship.”  As I consider whether to give to a certain cause, I check to see whether I feel cheer in my heart from the Holy Spirit.  Honestly, it brings me cheer to give to Andrew Wommack’s ministry.  It brings me cheer to give to Schools for Haiti and JH Israel and other ministries where I feel called to give.  I can honestly say that I’m now a cheerful giver and that I enjoy giving.  I don’t feel pressured to give to those ministries, and if someone tries to pressure me to give to their cause, and if I don’t feel any cheer, I’m not going to give. 

This spiritual cheer is a wonderful way that God helps us know where to give and to have joy in our giving.  God understands the world’s financial system.  He knows that we are simultaneously pressured to spend and save every penny we have.  He also knows that we are pressured to give.  Truly, our finances are pressed on every side.  You can navigate this pressure by sensitivity to His spiritual cheer and dependence on His guidance.

(2 Corinthians 8:12 NKJV) For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.

            Here is another important point, don’t worry about giving big numbers.  As I explained in one of my other teachings, we give in percentages and reap in multiples.  If you only have $10, you can only give up to a maximum of $10.  But if you give that $10, you can reap many multiples of $10.  But, again, don’t look at what you have and think that you can’t get started or that it doesn’t matter.  God does see what you have and God is looking at your heart.  It starts with a willing mind.  Just be willing to give, and then God accepts your gift.  God knows how much money you need and how much you really have available to sow.  In fact, I would says it’s better to give small with cheer and faith than to give big begrudgingly.  So be willing, feel the cheer, and start giving in faith.  It’s ok to start small.  Over time you will see God’s blessings on your finances and you will feel more and more cheer.  Personally, I’ve stopped giving just because I feel like I have to, and now I’m giving more than ever before, and it’s all cheerful giving, and I’m in faith for my harvest.

(Matthew 6:26 NKJV) Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

(Matthew 6:31-34 NKJV) "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

            Let’s put some ideas together from those passages and try to understand how God provides for us.  My friends, what I’m about to say is a recent understanding for me and is really setting me free.  Matthew 6:26 tells us that birds don’t engage in long term financial planning.  They go out and find food.  But really, God is the one providing for them.

            So I was talking to this bird the other day, a duck to be specific.  We were talking about our jobs.  I explained that I’m a real estate lawyer and he explained that really he just gathers food as he can and then goes home to sleep every night.  As I talked about God providing for my family he said that he’s never really seen God provide, that he just goes out every day and finds what he can.  The duck said that he was 10 years old, which apparently is a common age for a duck.  As he talked about his life he explained that for all these years he has been able to find enough food, but he’s never seen divine provision.

            So then I was able to show him the error of his thinking.  He thought that, because he had to go and gather his food every day, that it was all his effort, and God never provided for him.  But I explained that, even though the duck had never seen God miraculously drop food right in front of him, God was still the one that had provided all the food for him to eat.  Yes, the duck did have to go looking for it, but God was still the one actually providing food for him and all the other ducks.

            I then told the duck how that principle applies to my life, and the life of all others who trust God for their provision.  I’ve been a full-time lawyer for almost 16 years.  As I’m self-employed I don’t have a boss, but I do have to go out and find legal work to do if I’m going to eat.  In all these years, I’ve never once gone hungry.  As each month goes by, I’ve always been able to do enough work so that my income covers all my expenses.  On the surface, I can’t see the divine provision.  All I can see is my clients asking me to do work for them.  But the truth is that the work I do is God providing food for me, just like God provides food for you.   

            Sometimes I approach the beginning of a month and I think to myself, how in the world am I going to do enough work to cover my bills.  But I always do.  In fact, the vast majority of the time God brings in more than enough, and I have plenty to share with others. 

The duck listened patiently and then responded that I was delusional, that all of this was just a coincidence.  My clients are big hitters in the real estate world, the duck said, and that explained how I always had enough work.  But then I explained to the duck that he must not be deceived.  One can always try to explain away the supernatural by twisting the natural this way and that.  But if you do that, then you will miss out the wonderful picture of God’s provision that He has painted your life.  I told the duck how, in fact, God provides for us both.  God provides food for the duck, and God provides legal work for me, as that is the means by which God sustains each of us and our families.

Maybe you haven’t ever recognized or appreciated God’s divine provision in your life.  Maybe you’ve never realized that God is, in fact, providing for you through your job or other sources of income.  But now consider all the times you’ve had enough, or even more than enough.  Consider all the times you’ve thought you weren’t going to make it and still pulled through.  As for me and my house, there is simply no explanation for our financial lives other than God’s supernatural provision.  It’s not my job to math out the math and make sure I will have enough month after month.  In fact, that’s God’s job.  However, it is my job to stay very sensitive to the Holy Spirit, to make moves when He tells me to move, to conduct my business as a Godly man, and to give cheerfully whenever the Holy Spirit prompts me to do so. 

At this point I was pretty sure that I had lost the duck, but I sure felt good about God and his provision in my life. 

It does seem like a tall order when Jesus tells us not to worry about all that we need in our lives.  But when we actually understand God’s supernatural provision, and how it works, at least we can start to glimpse how we could live without that worry.  Seek God.  Seek God’s Kingdom.  Seek righteous living.  Seek cheerful giving, which is an extremely important part of the Kingdom of God.  As you seek what you should seek, as you live for what you should live for, then God will provide for you.  God will finance your life.  Yes, you will have to work, you will have to put your hand to something, but God is really the one providing for you.  

For the vast majority of you, your day job will be the primary way you reap financial harvests into your life.  But stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  You never know when another harvest might show up that God tells you to reap.  Maybe God tells you to start a side business, to change jobs, to make an investment, to buy a property, or do anything else in the natural financial realm.  God is about your business and God will help you reap.

            In closing, here is a brief recap.  God’s Word has many promises for your life, and God wants to bless your financial life.  In Christ, these promises belong to you and in fact they are your inheritance.  So you need to select some of these promises for yourself and then have faith and patience for them.  Believe in God’s promises even if you think you have never seen them in your life, get your faith activated.  God doesn’t drop money out of the sky, and usually it’s not going to come in the form of random gifts.  You need to put your hand to something.  God most often provides through your endeavors in the natural world.  God blesses your hands in what you do.  Financial provision is part of Christ’s atonement for you.  You are redeemed from the curse of poverty.  But you still need to work. 

Furthermore, you need to participate in sowing and reaping, which is the primary economic system in God’s Kingdom.  Be willing to share, willing to sow.  Don’t worry about the numbers, be willing according to what you have now.  Pay attention to the spiritual cheer.  When you see an opportunity to give, look for the cheer.  If you feel like you should cheerfully give, then start thinking numbers.  Where do you feel the cheer when you consider numbers?  Do you really feel cheerful about giving a very small amount when you known you could do more?  Conversely, do you still feel cheerful if someone pressures you to give more than you can when considering your current situation?  Focus on the cheer, and give cheerfully.  Give cheerfully, and give in faith for your harvest.  You will see God’s provision in your life, even through your regular job, and you will see God’s blessings start showing up in other areas of your life.

My friends, Biblical economics and divine provision can be complicated subjects.  But I do believe this message will help you get started on solid footing.  Fundamentally, what we’ve said here today is the paradigm for divine provision.  Always remember, God wants His grace to abound toward you so that you always have all sufficiency in all things and you can abound to every good work. 

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