Today
we move forward into larger spiritual wisdom pertaining
to our possessions in this world. As fearers of God, we
know we are highly accountable for what we do with what
we have in this life. Our spiritual health is tied to
our relationship to our possessions. And the scriptures
from the Proverbs to the Parables are filled with
directive wisdom about this.
But
the span of wisdom pertaining to this relationship is so
wide as to create “conflicts in wisdom.” Facets of
wisdom appear to contradict one another and we can be
confused about what wisdom applies when and how over
what we do with what we have. This conflict is
exacerbated in times of economic stress wherein people
are without income because they are either unable to
work, cannot or are prevented from finding work, and/or
the work they do does not produce any adequate return to
support them.
This
article seeks to bring a greater reconciled wholeness to
understanding these conflicted partial pieces of wisdom
under these conditions and how to adapt to them by the
Spirit as required.
Defining
Our Terms
o
Divine
Economy
Let’s
start with some simple definitions taken from the title
of this writing. This article is about “divine economy.”
Divine economy recognizes that God superintends our
relationship to natural resources. He supplies in the
face of demand. He knows what we need and when we need
it. He gives and takes away (or allows to be taken away)
as He sees fit for our eternal growth and the fulfilment
of His purposes in Christ for the church. That is all
divine economy is about.
o
Stewardship
“Stewardship”
acknowledges that we play a part in God’s dispensings of
earth’s resources, whether we earned it or it was given
to us somehow. Stewardship is a “trust.” In law, a trust
has three parties: a Grantor who authors the trust and
provides its substance, a Trustee to whom the substance
(known as the “res”) is entrusted for
administration, and a Beneficiary for whose benefit the
substance of the trust is to be administered by the
Trustee.
In
divine stewardship trust, God is the Grantor, we are the
Trustees, all that we possess and “our” money is the Res
of the trust, and the Beneficiary is the kingdom of God.
God entrusts this world’s goods into our hands to be
administered for the sole benefit of His Kingdom. This
trusteeship, for which we are held liable, is the
meaning of stewardship. (Note that in a trust, the
Trustee is never the “owner” of anything. And in the
divine economy, we own nothing as God’s stewards.)
o
Repentance
“Repentance”
understands that in course of executing our lifelong
trusteeship over God’s money and belongings, our minds
develop fixed limited patterns that have to be changed
at times over what and when and how we do what we do
with what we have. Our minds have to undergo changes
respecting the conflicted exhortations that scripture
presents regarding stewardship:
When
do we use for the present? When do we store against
the future? When do we keep for our own use? When do
we risk investing? When do we give away for the use of
others? On what terms do we use, store, keep, invest
or give?
The
more responsibility we feel toward our stewardship, the
more difficult the decision making over changes in
wisdom the Lord would lead us to—decisions also fought
out against the power of an enemy determined to see that
we fail in our stewardship.
Drilling Down into Stewardship Repentance
This
matter of repentance over stewardship requires special
attention. Repentance literally means “a change of
mind.” That is all it means. But there are two kinds of
repentance. There is repentance over sin—known or
unknown, willful or unintentional. We repent for evil
revealed in our lives. This is the usual way we think of
repentance.
But
then there is repentance over fixed limitations of
mind. Fixed mental limitations act as barriers
every time God reveals a new principle of wisdom to be
obeyed, especially a financial one. Those barriers must
be overcome. This is not repentance for evil. It is
actually repentance over what is “good” to our minds, as
contradictory as that might sound. We are repenting
regarding an earlier financial obedience that has
outlived its season.
Every
time God wants to bring us to a higher or different
stewardship principle or practice, we have to conquer
any natural fixation that has developed out of previous
instruction. We have to break out of that mindset to
undertake the new financial course. A change of course
requires a change of mind. We have to “break mental
camp” to move again with the cloud.
The
changes God orders in how we steward finances are the
hardest ones to make because the power of mammon in the
soul opposed to that stewardship is the deepest root of
evil to be overcome. Under satanic provocation, our
“codification” of God’s revealed principles—whether to
storing, investing or giving—can become entrenched
so as to become a stronghold of mind unable to
respond to other wisdom of the Lord. Financial patterns
and principles first imparted by the Spirit become
engrained as unbreakable law contrary to the Spirit.
This calls for an even stronger repentance under
spiritual warfare.
Over
the course of income-crippling circumstances then,
whether they be personal or national or even
international, God must lead us from hardened grace to
the next fluid grace over different wisdom. We’ve had
wise principles engrained in us (some from childhood),
whether about “storing like the ant” or perhaps
oppositely “giving to the poor.” In fact, entire
national political parties and movements have been
formed around opposing financial stewardship principles
(“conservative” versus “liberal,” etc.)
Where
these otherwise good principles become set in our hearts
as stone, they must be transcended to embrace “contrary”
wisdom through faith under the Spirit of life. We have
to repent as the Divine Grantor directs us Trustees to
do something different or entirely brand new with His
Kingdom “Res” beyond what we were led to do in the past.
This
is the kind of repentance we are talking about here
today.
The
Spectrum of Stewardship Wisdom
Now
that we understand the meaning of stewardship repentance
within divine economy, we are ready to draw out the
larger picture over the conflicted wisdoms. Financial
stewardship is expressed along a certain scriptural
spectrum. In the middle are three divine wisdom pieces
that require proper divine balancing against one
another.
On
the one side is the wisdom that tells us to store or to
“conserve” what we have against the future. On the other
is the wisdom that tells us to “use” what we have at the
time we have it. We are not to store it or consider what
the future may hold if we don’t store it. In the middle
is the wisdom that tells us to “invest” what we have
into enterprise that will bring a return through profit.
So
we have “conservative” wisdom, “usative” wisdom (sorry,
just made that word up) and “investive” wisdom (yes,
made that up too.) Scripture gives easy examples of all
three.
-
The
Wisdom of Conservation
In
line of conservative wisdom, we are given the famous
story of Joseph’s dream and the Proverbs of the ant:
Gen.
41:34
"Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in
charge of the land, and let him exact a fifth of the
produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of
abundance. 35 "Then let them gather all the
food of these good years that are coming, and store
up the grain for food in the cities under
Pharaoh's authority, and let them guard it. 36
"Let the food become as a reserve for the land
for the seven years of famine which will occur in the
land of Egypt, so that the land will not perish during
the famine."
Pr.
6:6
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be
wise, 7 Which, having no chief, Officer or
ruler, 8 Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest….30:24
Four things are small on the earth, But they are
exceedingly wise: 25 The ants are not a strong
people, But they prepare their food in the summer.
-
The
Wisdom of Investment
We
are taught the wisdom of investing that brings a
multiplied return. This is found in Ecclesiastes, in the
Parable of the Talents, and most of all in the concept
of sowing and reaping taught throughout the Parables of
the Kingdom.
Eccl.
11:2 NIV
Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not
know what disaster may come upon the land.
Mt.
25:14 "For
it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who
called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to
them. 15 "To one he gave five talents, to
another, two, and to another, one, each according to
his own ability; and he went on his journey. 16
"Immediately the one who had received the five talents
went and traded with them, and gained five more
talents. 17 "In the same manner the one who
had received the two talents gained two more. 18 "But
he who received the one talent went away, and dug a
hole in the ground and hid his master's money….
Mt.
13:3 …"Behold,
the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed,
some seeds fell …8 … on the good soil and
yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and
some thirty. 9 "He who has ears, let him
hear."
-
The
Wisdom of “Usation”
Lastly
we have the demonstration of “usative” wisdom. The
scriptural concept of “usation” is that which tells us
not to store up or ask for that which is beyond what we
need for the immediate day. It is reflected in the story
of the manna and in Jesus’ prayer and exhortations built
around daily trust for daily needs:
Ex.
16:16
"This is what the LORD has commanded, 'Gather of [the
manna] every man as much as he should eat; you shall
take an omer apiece according to the number of persons
each of you has in his tent.' " 17 The sons of
Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little.
18 When they measured it with an omer, he who
had gathered much had no excess, and he who had
gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as
much as he should eat. 19 Moses said to them,
"Let no man leave any of it until morning." 20
But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part
of it until morning, and it bred worms and became
foul; and Moses was angry with them. 21 They
gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as
he should eat; but when the sun grew hot, it would
melt.
Mt.
6:9
"Pray, then, in this way: …. 11 'Give us
this day our daily bread…. 25
"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about
your life, as to what you will eat or what you will
drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing? 26 "Look at the birds of the air,
that they do not … gather into barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth
much more than they? …28 … Observe how the
lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they
spin, … 30 "But if God so clothes the grass of
the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the furnace, will He not much more
clothe you? You of little faith!... 34 "So
do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care
for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The
wisdom of daily usation is the prevailing wisdom behind
Christ’s numerous exhortations to leave / give away all
one has to come follow him.
&&&&&&&&&&
Our
simple stewardship spectrum so far now then looks like
this:
Conservation
>> vs.
<< Investment >> vs.
<< Usation
-
The
Extremes: Hoarding and Squandering
On
either side of the spectral balancing center between
conservation, investment and usation are the extremes of
hoarding and squandering. Conservatism overplays itself
into hoarding. And usation overplays into squandering
and waste. Both extremes violate their central
counterparts and are condemned in scripture.
First,
we see the Lord’s warnings against hoarding:
Mt.
6:19
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break
in and steal. 20 "But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.
Lk.
12:15
Then He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard
against every form of greed; for not even when one has
an abundance does his life consist of his
possessions." 16 And He told them a parable,
saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. 17
"And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What
shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?'
18 "Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I
will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and
there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19
'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many
goods laid up for many years to come; take your
ease, eat, drink and be merry."' 20 "But
God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul
is required of you; and now who will own what you have
prepared?' 21 "So is the man who stores up
treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
And
then we see His equal warnings against profligacy:
Lk.
15:11
And He said, "A man had two sons. 12 "The
younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me
the share of the estate that falls to me.' So he
divided his wealth between them. 13 "And not
many days later, the younger son gathered everything
together and went on a journey into a distant country,
and there he squandered his estate with loose
living. 14 "Now when he had spent
everything, a severe famine occurred in that
country, and he began to be impoverished. 15
"So he went and hired himself out to one of the
citizens of that country, and he sent him into his
fields to feed swine. 16 "And he would have
gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine
were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.
Lk.
12:42
And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and
sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge
of his servants, to give them their rations at the
proper time? … 45 "… if that slave
says in his heart, 'My master will be a long time in
coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, … and
to eat and drink and get drunk; 46 the
master of that slave will come on a day when he does
not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and
will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with
the unbelievers.
&&&&&&&&&&
When
we add these extremes to our stewardship spectrum, it
now looks like this:
Hoarding
<<
Conservation >> vs.
<< Investment >> vs.
<< Usation >>Profligacy
-
The
Giving Factor
But
there is one last critical wisdom facet to be factored
into this spectrum. It is the wisdom of giving. Giving
is a highly promoted stewardship virtue throughout
scripture, and was particularly large in Jesus’ mind.
The Old Testament provided for giving through tithing,
as well as through leaving behind remnants of crops from
which the poor might glean:
Dt.
14:28
"At the end of every third year you shall bring
out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and
shall deposit it in your town. 29 "The
Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among
you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are
in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in
order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the
work of your hand which you do…. 26:12 "When
you have finished paying all the tithe of your
increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then
you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger,
to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in
your towns and be satisfied.”
Dt.
24:19 "When
you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten
a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get
it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and
for the widow, in order that the LORD your God
may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20
"When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go
over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien,
for the orphan, and for the widow. 21
"When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you
shall not go over it again; it shall be for the
alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.
With
Jesus, the exhortation to give was not related to
tithing, nor is tithing exhorted in the New Testament
after Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic law of tithing on the
cross. Nevertheless, the exhortation to give within the
divine economy is very strong.
Jesus
subdivides giving into two kinds. One is charitable
giving to the poor that expects no return. The other is
ministerial giving that does expect a return by way of
covenant. These two sub-wisdoms are exemplified here:
o
Unqualified
Charitable Giving
Lk.
6:30
"Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever
takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.
… 34 "If you lend to those from whom you
expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even
sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the
same amount. 35 "But … lend, expecting
nothing in return; and your reward will be
great, and you will be sons of the Most High;
Mt.
19:21
Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and
sell your possessions and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow
Me."
o
Qualified
Ministerial Giving
Lk.
6:38 "Give,
and it will be given to you. They will pour into
your lap a good measure -pressed down, shaken
together, and running over. For by your standard of
measure it will be measured to you in return."
Mt.
10:8 "Heal
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out
demons. Freely you received, freely give. 9
"Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your
money belts, 10 or a bag for your journey, or
even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the
worker is worthy of his support. 11
"And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who
is worthy in it, and stay at his house
until you leave that city. 12 "As you enter
the house, give it your greeting. 13 "If
the house is worthy, give it your blessing
of peace. But if it is not worthy,
take back your blessing of peace. 14
"Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your
words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake
the dust off your feet. 15 "Truly I say to
you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that
city.
§
Drilling
Down into Qualified Ministerial Giving
It
is necessary to draw out this facet of stewardship
wisdom just a bit because it is not understood at all.
Contrary to near universal popular misconception, Jesus
expected a return of natural provision on His and His
disciples’ investment of spiritual ministry into the
lives of the populace. The terms of that provision
are spelled out in this passage. The statement “freely
you received, freely give” is not an unconditional
stand alone maxim telling the disciples to give away
their miracles on no terms (as I have always thought).
This idea is refuted by the rest of the passage.
Here
was the deal. The disciples were not to charge “per
miracle per person” like a commercial
business. That is the meaning of “freely give.” But they
were to expect natural underwriting support and
remuneration for their ministry in a covenantal
context of a believing town patron with whom they would
abide for whatever agreed period of time. This began by
inquiry into who were people of “worthiness” in that
locality.
The
word “worthy” is critical to this understanding. The worthiness
of the patron is tied to the worthiness for hire
of the disciples. Worthiness specifically refers to those
who valued the worth of the disciples’ ministry
enough to underwrite their support while the disciples
ministered otherwise freely to all in that locality.
So
the worthiness of the patron was in his
valuation of the worthiness of the disciples of
provisional support. The disciples valued the people and
the people were expected to value the disciples. It was
on this basis of mutually appreciated worth that
Jesus expected His disciples to “lack nothing” during
their ministry tour and sent them out with no money. He
expected the people to value them enough to support
them. This valuation was also the meaning of “to
receive” the disciples. “Receiving” the disciples
was not just unto wanting their ministry, but to provide
for them by receiving them into their homes.
The
disciples were to find a believing underwriter, make
agreement with that one patron for support during their
local stay; and they were not to “shop around” for a
better patron who could provide them the “best offer.”
(In Luke’s version, Jesus said, “Go not from house to
house.”) The invitational conversation would
imaginatively go something like this:
“Hello,
Town. We are here on behalf of Jesus of Nazareth whom
all Israel has heard of and wants to see, and we are
here to bring the blessing of God’s Kingdom to you. In
order to bring this blessing to your town, we require
someone’s financial support for the duration of our
stay. Is there anyone here who values what we are
offering that would receive us by undertaking our
support? We do not sell our power. It is ministered
freely to all. But we require worthy support during
our sojourn here.”
And
so an agreement would come forth with someone. Later, if
for whatever reason the patron then proved “unworthy” by
failing to fulfil his support commitment to the
disciples or by prematurely evicting them over some
offense, they were to withdraw their peace from that
house because of the broken trust. And if they could not
discover any worthy patron at all in that locality who
was willing to support (“receive”) them, they were
to exit that city with a curse.
Jesus
expected His laborers to be valued and compensated for
the otherwise incalculable value of their miracle
ministry. This is the meaning of qualified ministerial
giving. (And it is why First Love Ministry provides a portal for readers of
means who receive blessing through this revelational
teaching ministry to share in the burden of financially
supporting us.)
&&&&&&&&&&
So
now we have another wisdom facet to account for on our
stewardship spectrum. We will place giving on the
spectrum next to the facet of daily usation:
Hoarding
<<
Conservation >> vs.
<< Investment >> vs.<<
Usation>>vs.<<
Giving (qualified vs.
unqualified) >>
Profligacy
The Conflicts of Stewardship Wisdom and Spiritual War
The
spectrum is getting cluttered now, isn’t it! It is
starting to get complicated!
Look
at all those wisdom elements in the middle: conservation,
investment, usation, qualified and unqualified giving.
Look especially at all the “vs.”
points between them. These are the competing points
of conflict between the divine stewardship
wisdoms.
The
conflict against the extremes is not so confusing. We
all know we should not hoard money or possessions, nor
should we squander them at any time. We know to avoid
these evils as best we can. It is just so obvious.
But
the real conflict is in the middle of the spectrum.
It is the conflict between knowing under pressure how
and when to rightly steward God’s remaining provision by
conserving, investing, using (spending) or giving.
We have examples and exhortations toward all these in
the Bible, but we can’t possibly live by all at the same
time in any matter, nor by any single one as “the rule”
for defining our stewardship.
The
conflict between the wisdoms forces us into always
asking these questions:
·
Should
I store up and save what I have in this situation for
a later use, or should I invest it in something I
believe will bring in a return, or should I just
spend it today, trusting God for tomorrow’s needs?
·
If
I don’t hold onto conserving it for tomorrow, and I
don’t invest it in hope of some return, should I use
today what I have on my family and personal needs, or
am I supposed to give away what I have to others?
·
If
I give this away to others, should I be expecting a
return back on it in some way as a qualified ministry
investment, or should I not expect any return on it
whatsoever, and just blindly trust God for what I need
next?
There is a lot of tension embedded into these questions!
As we wrestle with them, we are dealing with issues of
1)
spiritual hearing of the Lord,
2)
repentance out of earlier revealed principles /
practices now fixated in our mind, and
3) spiritual accusation and guilt leveled against our
hearing and outgrowing of prior principles.
The
enemy hates our stewardship and is keenly intent on
making it impossible for us to rightly steward our
resources along this spectrum. He does all he can to get
us into the end zones of the extremes. He wants to
provoke our intents to conserve and invest into
hoarding. He wants to lure our intents at giving
or spending into profligacy.
If
he can’t provoke us into the extremes, he wants then to
sow as much heart discord into our discernment of the
right wisdom as he can. He wants to set the wisdoms
against each other in our heart, and accuse our hearts
over whichever ones we don’t see to employ:
·
If
we think we should conserve, he whispers, “No you
greedy thing, God said to ‘not store up where thieves
can break in and steal!’”
·
If
we think we should invest, he whispers, “No you fool,
it’s too risky. Remember that Joseph conserved!”
·
If
we think we should just spend it all today and trust God
for tomorrow, he says, “No you spendthrift, you are
supposed to give it to ministry so you will have
treasure in heaven! Remember the rich young ruler?”
·
If
we think we should require a worthy return on ministry
impartation to others, he says, “No, you gospel
merchandizer! You are supposed to give away all
expecting and asking nothing in return! God hates
merchandizing the gospel. And if you don’t give it all
away, you will go to hell.” (People, this was
actually preached at a “John the Baptist Conference” I
attended in 2005!)
The
enemy sows this accusation and guilt directly into our
minds, as well as through people looking in on our
situation from the outside who have no clear word from
the Lord about the wisdom He would require of us.
Believers everywhere have their pet fixations of mind
when it comes to the competing stewardship wisdoms. And
if you ask them for their advice, they will more often
than not tell you either to conserve, invest, use or
give based in their present fixation with one of these
wisdoms.
Showdown
at Zarephath
I
Ki. 17:
8
Then
the word of the LORD came to [Elijah], saying, 9
"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and
stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to
provide for you."10 So he arose and went to
Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city,
behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he
called to her and said, "Please get me a little water
in a jar, that I may drink." 11 As she was
going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please
bring me a piece of bread in your hand." 12 But
she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have no
bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a
little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a
few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my
son, that we may eat it and die." 13 Then
Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go, do as you have
said, but make me a little bread cake from it first
and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one
for yourself and for your son. 14 "For thus
says the LORD God of Israel, 'The bowl of flour shall
not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty,
until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of
the earth.' " 15 So she went and did
according to the word of Elijah, and she and he
and her household ate for many days. 16 The
bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil
become empty, according to the word of the LORD which
He spoke through Elijah.
When
economic times are relatively prosperous, the questions
over these various stewardship wisdoms is not so
intense. There may be some confusion occasionally over
which one applies in a certain situation. But usually,
we can just pray through it easily enough to get God’s
mind without too terrible an internal conflict. (As long
as the income is there, that is what really matters,
right?)
The
strength of this conflict takes its great force rather
during times of severe economic chaos involving loss of
work, deprivation or famine. It is when we have so
little left to work with and must choose between buying
food or paying our winter utility bill that our faith
over these competing wisdoms is most tested! It is when
you are in the wilderness with 5,000 people and no food
for three days that it is most tested. It is when you
are leading 2,000,000 people in a desert with no more
food and water that it is most tested. It is when
a starving besieged city is forced to start boiling
children for supper that it is most tested. It is when
all that stands now between us and economic death is God
Himself.
The
story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath really speaks
out so loudly in this regard. This woman was in a
severely conflicted situation regarding stewardship of
her last remaining morsels of food. There was nothing
left to invest. Down to her last meal, she was in an
extreme place trapped between conservation and usation.
For
weeks or months, if not years, she had come to a point
of having to conservatively measure out whatever she had
left to make it last as long as she possibly could. It
was the only wisdom she could embrace. She was not at a
place where she could trust God in the wisdom of
usation—to believe in Mt. 6:33 style how God might
provide the next day if today she just spent what she
had left on herself and her son. Meanwhile, had there at
any time previous been ability to invest anywhere, or
else give to others in any kind of need, it was now
utterly out of the question. Neither of those wisdoms
could be entertained.
Before
proceeding further, we should note that this is exactly
the situation for untold multitudes of believers
throughout the world at this very hour (including even
in parts of America, Canada and other western countries)
who have extremely little, where people are on their
last rations of anything to eat, or a way to keep warm.
Like the widow in the story, they are at the end of
their wisdom of conservation, forced into final usation
of what they have left, and have nowhere further to look
tomorrow.They are on “their last meal.”
Well,
what happens in this story? All of a sudden this
stranger claiming to be a “man of God” shows up asking
her for water and some bread. She is OK with the water,
but the bread is out of the question. It’s her last
meal! The wisdom of giving is not in her vocabulary.
Yet, she is challenged to a repentance over her
conserving stewardship of what is left.
For
this woman, the only right thing to do is to use this
final conserved supply on their own need. But the Lord
has “commanded” a different thing. He has called her to
give first now to one calling himself a man of God, on
the blind faith of this unknown prophet’s word that if
she does so, she will receive a miraculous supply. She
must repent.
And
in the moment of terminal crisis, her repentant
faith makes the break with the mental fixation on
conservation, transcending into the grace of
qualified ministerial giving, where in return for her
gift to the man of God, she will receive an unending
supply of her final possession!
This
is what the crisis of stewardship repentance and its
salvation looks like in its extreme!
Resolving
Conflicts in Wisdom Through Death to Stewardship
The
end lesson regarding conflicted stewardship wisdom under
economic threat, duress and coercion is that it is not
finally about the “right wisdom” in our situation. It is
rather that we come to death over our stewardship so we
may be transformed to a higher stewardship trust than we
have ever known.
Like
everything else in the faith, stewardship is subject to
death in order to bring forth a greater life. Jesus
said, “To him that has shall the more be given”
and “he that is faithful in little will be made ruler
over much.” Unspoken in those maxims is that the
lesser may often first be stripped and taken away
before the more is given! Every stewardship branch that
bears fruit is pruned that it may bring forth more
fruit.
This
is how it was with Joseph. He had a stewardship under
his father, Jacob. He had a greater stewardship under
Pharaoh. But between the two he had to be stripped of
his coat of many colors and imprisoned as a slave before
his greater stewardship could be awarded.
The
lost coat of many colors answers to our rainbow of
financial wisdom pieces. Each of the pieces on the
stewardship spectrum—conserving, investing, using,
giving—answers to a color of the light spectrum. In the
course of our stewardship, the Father may lead us
through instruction in all the facets of financial
wisdom. But before awarding us our greatest stewardship,
He may and likely will have to take all of it away. He
brings us to a place where no matter which facet of
wisdom we apply, nothing works. And that is why.
In
the end of it, under complete economic pressure and
losing it all, we find it is no longer about whether I
am or was supposed to conserve for tomorrow, invest for
the future, spend for today or give into the unknown.
Nothing availed. It is only about whether we can hear
the voice of the Son of God from the midst of the seven
candlesticks.
There
were seven candlesticks before John on Patmos, each
bearing its light. But the Son of God in their midst was
brighter than all. And it was He who absorbed John’s
ultimate attention.
So
it must be with the candlesticks of financial wisdom
laid before us throughout scripture. We must yield our
attraction or fixation to any one of them to see and
hear only the Son of God in the midst of all of them.
It’s not about selecting the right financial wisdom
piece that will save the situation. It is about Him as
the “All in All.” It is not about our Trusteeship. It is
about the Grantor Himself.
As
Trustees of God’s powers and provisions, we have to be
proven and tested for our status and capacity as worthy
trustees. We have to be “probated.” In that probation,
we will be deprived to the point of giving up the ghost
over our ability to wisely steward the Lord’s wealth and
make the right financial decision in every situation.
When times are tough, when there is no more money or
provision or whatever, when mammon is screaming at us to
serve it, and the devil is heaping guilt on guilt over
financial failures in faith, this is the ultimate Wisdom
we are called to, even “Christ, the Wisdom of God.”
(I Cor. 1:24)
Only
through recapitulating back into the Son will we find
our resolution between the hyper-conflicted financial
candles we face under satanic threat in times of
economic distress.
&&&&&&&&&&
I have lived a long time now. I have watched the church
struggle and debate these wisdoms under pressure. I’ve
seen religious hoarding, squandering, merchandizing and
huckstering. I have heard about tithing, giving,
investing and conserving against the day of calamity. I
have watched the prophetic internet bombs lobbed against
this church or that ministry for how it (mis)handled
money. I have seen prosperous ministries who thought
they had all the right financial wisdoms in place yet
cave under duress. Nothing they believed or taught
financially saved their day.
And
I have seen the lack in my own appreciation of the
breadth of all the facets of divine stewardship. In the
beginnings of this ministry I was a strong champion of
unqualified giving as the one means God intends to use
to establish and prosper the economy of the church in
the final end times. This was largely in response to the
enslavement of the church to the earthly law of human work
and debt for service rendered. There is
still much truth in that general assessment, and I am
still a major advocate of giving.
Yet
in the years of personal testings since, I have come to
see the limitations of that single tenet of stewardship
wisdom as “the” central wisdom God will employ in the
church’s tribulation economy. No. the central wisdom in
the church’s economy of that time will be “Christ,
the wisdom of God,” not that one candlestick.
Why
This Lesson Is Necessary
Since
2008, the world economy has not been the same. Pressures
have increased to rival times of the Depression Era of
the early 20th century, though no one dares
speak the “D” word. Churches, ministries and Christian
households have come under stress that they were never
accustomed to in prior “good times.” The times since
have made a mockery of highly popular pseudo-wisdoms and
culture prophecies of prosperity selectively crafted out
of the scriptures—even though they are still touted
anyway.
It
has been lately prophesied now that the terrible
economic years since 2008 served to bring forth 7 years
of testing so that the faithful who passed the test may
now enter into God’s “jubilee” of prosperous purposes.
Like
Jeremiah, I can say, “Amen. May the LORD do so; may
the LORD confirm your words which you have prophesied.”
(28:6) And maybe there will be a turning
for the “some” of “Gideon’s Band” if not for the many
who think they are entitled to the blessing just because
they were in earshot of the prophecy.
Whether
or not however there is some lifting of the pressures in
this time or the near term, it is certain that the
church at large has only seen the beginning of end time
financial pressure. The global corporate commercial
machine that has overtaken all the governments of the
world like a gangrene (the “beast”) is quite alive and
well and has not yet shown the world the utmost of its
prophesied tyranny under the mark. And the Babylonian
church worldwide is going to be economically squeezed to
a point of death that it has never experienced before.
It
is for when that time comes, when none of the scriptural
financial wisdom facets avail any more—when there is
nothing left to conserve, much less to tithe, invest or
give away—and it is down to either keeping the whole
last meal or gambling to split it with the unknown
prophet—that this word will provide an anchor that saves
souls.
Meanwhile,
may this word encourage the faithful whose past
stewardship has indeed been pruned away, their fortunes
reduced to below zero, yet whose jubilee God knows is
truly at hand!
