Money is an Object: Christians and their Cash
Recently, several well-meaning friends have lovingly encouraged me to
ask my subscribers and readers for funds. They were referring to YOU,
my friend.
I’d like to say a few things about my personal convictions regarding
ministry and money. Remember, these are MY personal convictions
based upon my OWN experiences with God; they are not intended to
serve as some sort of “formula for success.” That would feel too much
like witchcraft to me. Perhaps they just might clarify some issues within
your own soul as well.
Not long ago, my wonderful wife, Barbara, and I decided that we
would not ask for money for ourselves. Will we accept it? Yes, we
will, because we would not deny anyone the blessing that comes from
giving. We understand the principals of reaping and sowing. We’ve
come to understand how God’s Kingdom economy actually works -
like gravity or any other law - and we dove in with both feet. This is
a principle of God that ALL would be wise to embrace.
EXAMPLES WORTH NOTING AND FOLLOWING
I have a friend who has been in ministry for decades. He is a follower
of George Mueller’s example, a ministry to 100,000 British orphans
that was wonderfully blessed - miraculously – as God laid it upon
people’s hearts to support his work. The history of the Bristol
orphanages is page after page of answered prayer. Nothing was
too small to bring to the Lord in prayer. In his prayers, Mueller would
confidently set his need and his case before God: “He is their Father,
and therefore has pledged Himself, as it were, to provide for them; and
I have only to remind Him of the need of these poor children in order
to have it supplied.”
Mueller was convicted NOT to ask people for money. He had joyfully
dedicated his “whole life to the object of exemplifying how much may
be accomplished by prayer and faith.” When he had moved to Bristol
in 1832 to take the pulpit of Gideon chapel, he and his wife Mary
decided not to accept a salary from the congregation. They wanted to
daily depend upon the Lord for their needs, and they accepted only
unsolicited freewill offerings. Mueller’s journal is full of the amazing
ways the Lord directed funds to them throughout his sixty-six years of
ministry.
My friend told me that, although his own family has scraped the bottom
of the barrel throughout their married lives, several years ago, they
prayed that God would allow them $10,000 to remain in their bank
account AFTER paying all their bills. God was faithful to do so,
pouring out a blessing they cannot contain, finances flowing through
obedient Believers into his own ministry, allowing them to maintain
that exact dollar amount each month for the past two years.
My friend’s secret? He GAVE to other ministries as the Spirit led!
I have seen the evidence of this step-of-faith with my own eyes. A
few months ago, while driving this same man to Stephenville to do
a meeting here, I asked him if there was a certain point in the meeting
when he wanted me to collect an offering for him. He looked me in
the eye and smiled, “I didn’t come here to collect an offering. I came
because God led me to come here. You do what the Spirit leads you
to do.” In two days, I believe he received around $1,400, as
individuals from a group of around 30 attendees slipped money and
checks into his hand. His meals were provided for as were his
accommodations, meals and transportation.
WE CAN’T OUT-GIVE GOD!
Likewise, in my own life, God has done many financial miracles. For
example, I never charge for doing weddings. I love to do weddings!
Without charging, I have received some incredible amounts of money –
with hotel accommodations – from people who felt led to give. When
I was as poor as a church mouse, walking with a cane, I remember
placing my last 18 cents in the offering plate. Since that time, I was
healed of an incurable spinal disease, married an angel who, when
paying bills, actually ASKS where we should give and never says ‘no’
when I feel led to give, and I’ve been blessed with two incredible jobs
in six years, the second of which has paid me twice what the first one
paid. I have been blessed materially as result. Over the years, I’ve
given away three cars, something I’ve always wanted to do, and sold
several others REAL cheap. I, too, have become convicted not to ask
for money for myself. All we do differently than what we used to do
is give stuff away as the Lord leads.
Our secret: To get blessed, we’ve learned that we must remain blessable.
Though Paul taught that it was acceptable for one to earn a living from
the Gospel, and Jesus had enough people supporting what He was
doing that He had a traveling treasurer named Judas Iscariot, I fail to
find any examples of ministers requesting money from their audiences
in the New Testament. Where Paul is concerned, I DO see him taking
collections for others, for example, the unfortunate famine victims of
Jerusalem.
EXAMPLES FROM FAR AWAY LANDS
These days, as I carry on several long-distance relationships with
ministers in third world countries, I see in them no desire to do
anything frivolous with money. When I recently sent money to a man
in a Muslim nation, he said he would buy Bibles with most of it and
an electric fan and food for 5 orphaned ex-Muslims whom he had
baptized just that morning. My mind was screaming, “Save some for
yourself, man! Buy yourself something nice!” There I go acting
American again.
When I heard about a month ago that this same individual could use
a motorbike to reach out to the nearly 900 churches he’d planted, one
eMail to my subscriber base generated all the money he needed and
more! I received checks and PayPal donations from people whose
faces I’d never seen; people who were simply obeying the Holy Spirit.
In a nation where most Christians are jobless, or working as janitors
at best, he can think of nothing that he really needs. “God is my
Provider!” he exclaims, joyfully. “I am not a lover of money, but a
lover of God!”
IN GOD WE TRUST…RIGHT?
I’d be remiss if I did not tell the truth about finances from time to
time. Though past experience has been that some people will
unsubscribe whenever I mention the subject of money, seeing me
as “just like all the other money-grubbing ministers out there,” I am
compelled to teach that which will benefit readers the most. The
devil will certainly lie to many, telling them that my intentions are
less than noble. I believe this is exactly according to his plan.
I will resist the urge to quote many Scriptures for you regarding
giving and financial prosperity. I won’t do that, but I will quote a
dear friend of mine whose Christian lifestyle we could all learn
from: “Every time we are admonished to give, there follows a
wonderful promise of material blessing IN THIS LIFE, plus
reward in the next life.”
Here are a few of the passages that encourage us to give, followed
with the promise of material blessing:
“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.”
“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give,
not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace (material blessing) abound
(overflow) to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that
you need, you will abound (overflow) in every good work.”
“Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your
produce; so your barns will overflow with plenty and your vats
will overflow with new wine.” (Prov. 3:9-10)
“The generous man will be prosperous and he who waters will
himself be watered.” (Prov. 11:25)
“Give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For
whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you
in return.” (Luke 6:38)
These verses, and many others, clearly reflect that we are not
only to give generously AS THE LORD LEADS but we are to
look to Him to fulfill his promises to bless those who give in this
way.
We cannot ignore God’s promises without offending his goodness
and graciousness toward us. The reason these promises have not
been fulfilled in many lives is because we have been taught to
give without any expectation of return or that it is wrong to give
expecting something in return. It is not wrong to give as God
leads us and then expect Him to do what He has clearly promised
that He would do in His Word. This is defined as FAITH.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Do you agree? Note that I’m not teaching that we should “give to
get,” but knowing that God is the Giver of all good things, having
experienced His generosity on a firsthand basis, with intimate
firsthand knowledge of that aspect of His character, I can state,
with confidence, that when Scripture quotes the Father as saying,
“Try Me…see if I won’t pour out a blessing that you cannot
contain, (Mal 3:7-11),” it’s 100% TRUE!
But we must give as the Spirit leads and with a pure motive; to
advance God’s Kingdom through His people.
If we Christians in the Western world would take hold of this truth,
we could change the world. Malachi 3:9 warns us, “You are
cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even this whole
nation.” The passage goes on to instruct us HOW to reverse this
curse in verse 10: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse (I believe
that’s His Kingdom, NOT a church building or denomination), that
there may be food in My house (providence among His people),
and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open
the windows of Heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Not only will we be blessed for our obedience, but verse 11 declares:
“…I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not
destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its
fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts.” In other
words, that hard-earned money that seems to leak through your
hands like water, going to pay for taxes and temptations so
frequently that we are “in the red” more often than not, leaving
you unable to care for those who need your help, will stop trickling
away. Maybe more of us can get to the point – as a result of our
giving – where we’ll have $10,000 left after our bills are paid,
rather than having more month left after our money.
Am I being legalistic here? No. Neither was my friend and neither
was George Mueller. Nobody HAS to do anything, however, we
are wise to do what the Spirit guides us to do. This isn’t legalism;
it’s a wonderful New Testament example that I strongly recommend
we should all begin to follow.
There you have it; one Christian’s opinion, my answer regarding
how it is YOU can dig yourself out of the hole that you may have
dug for yourself. As Paul said in Ephesians 5:15-17, “Be very
careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making
the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore
do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
Let us work with God! Let us live life according to HIS plans! Let
us go where He is working. If we can’t go, let’s send those whose
lives He is obviously using to do so.
Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
A servant of God
www.YourTown4Jesus.com
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