In the fog of war surrounding our family’s provision – having completely run out of money – there were some refining, clarifying moments.
I’m not quite sure how I came to these two directives exactly, but in the summer of 2009 there is no question that God gave us two clear directives :
- Don’t ask man for money, ask Me to provide (pray)
- No more debt
Let me expound on this.
1. Don’t Ask Man, Pray
God did not want us to ask people for money (essentially begging), nor borrow money either (asking to borrow money almost always comes with strings attached and creates relational trouble when it wasn’t offered unsolicited).
God was not taking us through this trial to make us beggers. He was teaching us to have financial faith and to trust Him.
I have never seen the righteous forsaken, not their children begging for bread
Psalms 37:25
While asking for help from people in our community and family is permissible for God’s people, it is not God’s best and highest plan in making provision for His children.
Especially when it leads to the temptation for any of God’s children to boil it all down to the desperation of asking people: ‘please help. give me some money’.
Why? Because when self-interest is imposed on man rather than trusting in God directly, it tends to create different types of slavery.
This is different than God’s commandment to help people who ask for help – those who are destitute, such as the poor, widow or the orphan. Matt 5:42. This is a command for us, God’s children, to be generous. It is not self-interested. It is His mercy for those in need.
God’s Kingdom economy is giving and receiving. It is asymmetrical. It offers what we ourselves would want done unto us. It doesn’t force others to obey God’s word through manipulation and guilt. In other words, it preserves man’s free will and places full faith and trust in God, not man.
Therefor, it is not for God’s children to turn this scripture around into a self-interested “right” to “ask for money” – especially teachers and ministers who should know better and are held to higher account. For His truth sets us free.
Asking man for money is not God’s ultimate wisdom or his ultimate provision. Why? One, it deifies money as the critical path to provision. It turns money into Mammon. The logic goes : my needs need to be met, that means I have to get money somehow in today’s world. Not true.
First, that assumption is based on lies. That money is the key to life and survival. That money makes the world go ’round. That without money, we’re gonna die. Without money, not even God can help me.
The truth is God can provide with or without money. When we have ‘money problems’ (financial problems) we think getting money somehow is always the solution. But that’s a trap. And God wants to break that stronghold off of our minds.
You cannot serve both God and money
Matt 6:24
So, unfortunately to ask the question “how do I get money?” is when we ‘lean on our own understanding’ and can quickly devolve into maybe I can just ask someone for money. Someone who has a lot of it! Can you spare a dime (or maybe a few thousand)?
Again, seeking after money/provision from man usually ends up in some kind of slavery. You ask man for something, you are opening yourself up for that person to ask for something in return. For example, this is how prostitution works. It’s the quid pro quo. I’m emphasizing these points because they are so engrained in our culture. Even “Christian” culture.
You have not because you ask not
James 4:2
It is worth mentioning, that many people twist this verse around to mean – you don’t have the money you need because you are embarrased to ask people. That is false. This verse is about prayer and asking God for help. It is NOT about getting the courage to swallow your pride and ask people for money. Sure, if we have pride in any way, that is sin and we need to repent. However, to then turn that into a right to ask man for money is wrong, and wrong hearted because it is selfish and manipulative.
Likewise, when you ask God for help, I’ve learned it is better to resist the temptation to ask God for money straight up. Instead, I’ve learned to ask him to fulfill his Word which says he will supply our needs. With or without money. This breaks the yoke of being enslaved to money itself. Matt 6:33 and Phil 4:19. This is wisdom. And we are told to ask for wisdom.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt…
James 1:5-6
We are told “do not doubt” which is saying “have faith”. That is the key. Trust God to make a way. Don’t trust Him to get money. Believing in the way of money primarily or even exclusively is like praying to the god of money (Mammon) instead of Jehovah. I’ll repeat what I said earlier – God can provide with or without money. He said he would supply our needs, not necessarily give us money per se. We are to have faith and not doubt his word which is His promise.
Our experience during these difficult times taught us these things through God’s Word. We were not taught this at church. It’s not an easy lesson to learn. Money is liken to the “third rail” of the church world just like the rest of the world.
I identify with Morpheous’ quote about the Matrix in a similar fashion…Mammon is a matrix. It’s a web of lies and slavery intelligently designed by the devil to ensnare people in this life. Just interchange Matrix and Mammon and you get the idea.
So likewise, if you instead ask someone to borrow money (instead of begging), that debt can become a slavery to you, especially when it contractually requires interest and demands recourse if you fail to pay. As a result we become enslaved to find the income (the money) required to make such debt payments. This also can even lead to even pursuing illicite gain, or ill gotten gain.
The extreme of which can become like owing money to a loan shark who will “break your legs” if you don’t come up with the money – the practice of payday lending and “hard money” lending is similarly enslaving, even if legally permissible.
God’s promises are different. But it again requires faith to shift our mind set.
You are to be the lender, not the borrower
Deuteronomy 28:12
Just like begging, borrowing is not God’s best or highest. Because of the asymmetry of God’s Economy, this is different than being on the other side of the equation. We are told to lending to our fellow man if they ask for help by borrowing. Matt 5:42.
Let us get understanding.
This is also why God says, “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.” (Exodus 22:25) Why? Because when someone borrows in their desperation, God doesn’t want them exploited because of their desperation or their poverty. This is why God commands “do not profit from the poor” (Proverbs 22:22) otherwise, you will come to poverty yourself (Proverbs 22:16).
So, applying the no self-interest, no slavery idea here, we want to be the lender not the borrower, and when we lend we are helping give a “hand-up” to those not only in need, but those who desire to repay. God loves this because it helps disciple people out of debt slavery. It provides escape hatches such as no charging interest and no “recourse” (debt forgiveness ever seven years).
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High…
Luke 6:35
And if this is lending to our enemies, how much more towards our brothers and sisters?
Note Jesus command to “not expect to be repayed” when the beleiver lends, but it is considered wickedness if the borrower promises to repay when they have no intention to repay.
The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously
Psalms 37:21
Again, the assymetry of God’s Economy – of giving and receiving. Not demanding and taking out of self-interest.
2. No more Debt
God was saying something to the effect of:
Don’t refinance your way out of the problem by going into more debt
This includes loan consolidation strategies that at best might lower your interest rate, but at worst just compound the debt owed with additional fees and interest. Especially if a loan consolidation requires pledging an asset, such as your home. It is not a good trade-off to replace an unsecured loan (like a credit card) into a secured loan with lower interest rates (like a home equity line).
It’s also important to note, that God specifically did not want us going to a nameless, faceless financial institution to refinance our debts or get into more debt. But this was not just a one-time directive, it really has become a life-long type of commitment to Come out of Babylon. Likewise, Christians today lend money as money lenders do. So God doesn’t want us to borrow from people who also follow the same practices (lend at interest, recourse loans). He wants us to get out of these type of debts because they are slavery.
So if you look at all the scriptures on lending and giving and borrowing, these were designed for God’s people, and to God’s people. They were never intended to be enforced by corporate machinery where it is not a person lending, it’s is a profit making entity that owes no obligation other than profit to “shareholders”. This is Babaylon. This is the Matrix.
I have become convinced that “shareholders” are just a straw man in order to hide behind to avoid any sense of moral obligation beyond the laws of the land. In other words, shareholders do not have a soul. They are infact soulless proxies for a person in the legal sense only.
Milton Freedman, a Jewish man and Nobel Prize winner in economics confirmed this by famously saying…
This is also why we now advocate in the Storehouse Vision for biblical loans whenever there is borrowing involved with God’s people. God’s biblical lending has three critical aspects to it to prevent slavery…
- No interest (Deut 23:19)
- Non-recourse (Luke 6:35)
- Forgive debts every 7 years (Deut 15:1)
Importantly, this can’t come out of self-interest. Rather, these are the biblical lessons we learned as to how to treat others. By lending or giving to others out of our own heart (the Fathers heart of generosity). Not to use these ideas to turn around and tell others that this is how you need to help me! Give me some money!
The honest truth was it was scary. And there was all the pressure on our family to trust God by faith – that He would make a way in our situation because it is in his word.
It was plainly and painfully clear to us that the point of what we were going through was a test of faith and obedience. We knew that we knew, that God had placed us in these circumstances and wanted us to trust Him. Why? In order to learn that “man does not live by bread alone” (Matt 4:4).
Another way of me saying to “trust God” was to not fall back on self-efforts. I had already given up my right to go back and work on Wall Street or take up some other job (on my own accord, I have the authority to lay it down and pick it up again – John 10:18) to “make money” instead of pursuing the calling He had for my life and our family’s life.
God had me on assignment. The business that He gave me (National Hall Capital) was also my ministry. But, make no mistake, He was in the midst of transforming me. It was a transformation and testing by fire. It’s not fun, but it is fruitful.
So this was what it looked like for me to allow God to tie both hands behind my back and say “I trust you!”. Ever done a “trust fall” with someone else catching you as you fall blindly back into their arms? It’s like that.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It carrys an evidence that can’t be seen.
Hebrews 11:1
God didn’t want me to work myself out of this jam. He wanted me to pray. He wanted me to trust Him. That was the program. That’s what He was asking. That’s what He was requiring in obedience. Whether begging (I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor their children begging for bread – Psalm 37:25), borrowing or otherwise using my sales skills, my ingenuity, my words of persuasion.
Less than a year later, God described our situation as the world around us saw it – that it was like we had “stage 5” cancer – i.e., financial cancer. Of course there is no stage “5” – only a death sentence. And that cancer was debt. And we now we had a mountain of it. Between our four mortgages and the maxed out credit cards/lines, we were looking at $2-3mm of it, with only $1-2mm in assets. And did I mention? No income. Zero. Nada. So you have to understand, financially in the way the world looks at it we were “dead.” In fact, from a tax standpoint
Another pressure was panic selling. In our crunch, the temptation was to start selling everything to pay off debts and generate income. Such panic selling was not wise, because God was not asking us to sell everything to save ourselves. It’s a good thing we resisted this temptation (see houses, cars, etc.), because we would have lost our shirts. It was in the depth of the “great depression” and houses and vehicles were trading at huge discounts. Once again, “ripping up the floor boards” and selling them was not going to solve this problem. Only God was going to solve it.
Yet God was faithful. We were technically bankrupt, but never filed for bankruptcy. We trusted God. He made a way.
Later, I think at a Transformation USA meeting out in Huntington Beach and Biola University in California in 2010, when I explained our situation and testimony to the other T-USA leaders, someone said “Oh, you are like a George Mueller.” I was like – who is he?
George Mueller was an amazing man of God. I won’t try to recap his whole story here, but he started off in Germany. His father wanted him to go to seminary and become a Lutheran Pastor so that the family would get a housing benefit. This created resentment in George, and he vowed he was never going to push people into doing things as his father had done. He had an identity crisis. He was not a good person. But he found Christ and got radically saved.
He later moved to London and joined the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (now known as the Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ), directly established Christ Church in Jerusalem) as a missionary.
Later, George Müller pastored a church called Ebenezer Chapel in Teignmouth, Devon, England, around 1830. He eliminated the system of pew rentals, as he felt it was against the principle of a cheerful giver and discriminated against the poor, and he wanted the congregation to support the ministry through voluntary, anonymous offerings. Müller gave up his salary to show his complete trust in God to provide for his needs.
He later started a ministry to orphans through Bethesda Chapel in Bristol, England called Ashley Down Orphanage. He never directly solicited man for money. Intead, he turned to prayer. He asked God for help, not man. He graciously accepted help from man when they came to him to help, but knew deep down there was no benefit of “fund raising” from man. If God had given him a vision for a ministry for helping the orphans, He could certainly provide what was needed for its success and completion. So he would pray the prayers of faith.
Later, George also built a mission sending school known as Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad and helped found the Plymouth Brethren church denomination.
God provided George Mueller’s ministry the equivalent of over 100 million pounds of material, money, lands, etc. over his lifetime. He never asked man for a penny! Praise God!
Rees Howells has a similar testimony you can read here: https://a.co/d/3M0put6