Round Table Discussion – The “Transfer”
Wealth Transfer Part 2
As background, have a read/ listen to our last discussion two years ago: Wealth Transfer
So, this week my friend Peter Rondeau reached out to me with the passage from Isaiah 23, which is the prophetic judgement of Tyre, but it specifically speaks to (in v18) the message of Tyre’s ill gotten wealth (similar language to the Harlot of Babylon Rev 18) being laid up for God’s redistribution to the righteous. So we got to praying through this scripture and others like it, and started talking more about “What does God mean by this wealth transfer?” this week at the Monday Noonday prayer time.
“But everything [Tyre] gets, all the money she takes in, will be turned over to God. It will not be put in banks. Her profits will be put to the use of God-Aware, God-Serving-People, providing plenty of food and the best of clothing.” – Isaiah 23:17-18
There are some other awesome passages in scripture like this, such as:
“The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” – Prov 13:22
“To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.” – Ecc 2:26
“Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.” – Prov 28:8 (thanks to Lucienne who pointed this one out couple years back)
But before we get too excited, start jumping around and giving each other high-fives (I kid you not, I have actually seen mature Christians do this in response to such words and ‘wealth transfer’ scriptures like the Dwarfs in the Hobbit swimming around in the gold treasure horde of Lonely Mountain)
Really, we are seeking the Lord’s face about the right way of understanding and praying into this idea of “the transfer” (as Bob Jones and Rick Joyner referred to it). In fact, its mentioned in our “about” page and purpose statement here in the New Breed of Business:
“The New Breed are inspired business people, gathering together to get the inspiration of God as to how to begin the transfer. The transfer being the transfer of wealth (people and resources) from Babylon (the wicked) into the Kingdom (the righteous – Prov 13:22) related to the end-times harvest (1 billion souls). This inspiration comes from communion with God (Intimacy – Song of Solomon), understanding the knowledge of God (Col 1:10; Hosea 4:6), and receiving the wisdom of God (1 Cor 12:8; Isaiah 11).”
It’s also worth understanding again this slide:
The biblical examples of wealth transfer are always about advancing the Kingdom, and people helping people. It’s never about the pride of life or self-advancement.
Some folk believe in a “prosperity gospel” which gets simplified to partial-truths or falsehoods like: “because I am a Christian, God gives me money and I am always blessed, never defeated” or “money works for me, i don’t work for money” or “i don’t worry about money because i have plenty of money” or “I’m the head and not the tail – God gives me money according to Deut 8:18”. So, those things that glorify the flesh, pride, the self, taking one’s ease, etc. can become sideroads to destruction through delusion and pride. This type of “always blessed” theology (never lack, never struggle) completely misses the commanded suffering Christians must endure in this life.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” – Matt 10:24-26
Let’s study Paul’s passage carefully to the Phillipians:
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” – Phillipians 4:11-13
“Many have wandered from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” – 1 Tim 6:10
“Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” – James 4:13
Let us remember too King Hezekiah’s folly:
“Hezekiah listened to and welcomed [the Bablyonians] and foolishly showed them all his treasure house—the silver and gold and spices and precious oil and his armory and everything that was found in his treasuries.” – 2 Kings 20:13
One of the greatest lessons lies in the Isrealites coming out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. They too received a great wealth transfer when God instructed them to plunder the Egyptians in gold and silver. But to what end? To forge a golden calf and worship it? All the gold and silver couldn’t buy any food in the desert. God said he had to test their hearts:
Let us study Deut 8 again to understand:
“… the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you…
Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands… Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…
He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness… He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you… You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant” – Deut 8:2-5; 11-15
The reason for that specific wealth transfer is found when Moses and Aaron asked the people for an offering to build the tabernacle and all of its gold and silver implements the Lord required in his heavenly plans (Exodus 35).
Ultimately, not one from that generation got to carry their gold and silver into the promised land, bar Joshua and Caleb. Only their offspring.
Let us learn of God’s idea of stewardship with integrity, separating our personal affairs from the King’s business…
“Thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Go, proceed to this steward, To Shebna, who is over the house, and say: ‘What have you here, and whom have you here, That you have hewn a sepulcher here, As he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock? He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball Into a large country; There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots Shall be the shame of your master’s house. So I will drive you out of your office, And from your position he will pull you down. Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O mighty man, And will surely seize you.
Then it shall be in that day, That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe And strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.”
– Isaiah 22:15-23
“Keep yourselves free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. For He said: “I will never leave you or forsake you” – Hebrews 13:5
These verses well encapsulate the wisdom the Church needs in this hour. We cannot carry the world’s money-driven, capitalistic, materialistic ideals into a life submitted to Christ for service. Only in ‘the way’ can we be like Eliakim – trustworthy with the King’s treasury, resources and people. Being a father to the house of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem – a father to the people of God.
So, Who should we be seeking?
How should we pray for the “wealth transfer”?
How do we avoid the pitfalls of Shebna, Korah, Cain, Baalam?
What does the wealth transfer look like in our day?
If our nation and even the church in our nation is being judged for: greed, mammon idolatry, financial fear, self-preservation, self-interest, pride, self-promotion, self-effort, celebrity, selfish-ambition, vanity – how does this affect the “wealth transfer”? Can it even happen under this blight? Are the heavens brassed over in this regard?
newbreed.co 