In the context of right stewardship in the Kingdom of God, the word “holy” has a special meaning. It includes being aware as a disciple of Christ that you are positioned in this world by God, but you are not of this world (cf. John 17:14-16).

 

14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

 

When the Word of God uses the term ‘world’ in regards to the system, it means the following levels of society:

 

• Commerce
• Industry
• Finances
• Education
• Science
• Medical Science
• Law

As saints our hearts should not be attached to these structures. This involves consciously moving as disciples of Jesus in the structure of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Spirit, while living in the sovereignty of Christ by God-given grace in a financial system established by man.

 

Thus, as disciples, we use the power of finances to establish, amongst others, the realm of ‘spiritual friendship’ (cf. Revelation 21:2-3 i.c.w. Luke 16:9-13).

 

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

 

9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
13 ‘No-one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’

 

Spiritual friendship involves a personal and sincere relationship with another person from face to face (cf. Exodus 33:11a).

 

11a The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.. …

 

 

This clearly shows that we align our prosperity or wealth, which includes our finances, with the standard of God’s Word. As Jesus’ disciples we are first of all concerned with strengthening the Kingdom economy through the investments of the firstfruits, the tithes, through offerings given into the time frame of the biblical feasts ordered by God (Note: Pessach, Shavout, Sukkoth), alms and special kinds of sacrifices like, for instance, the Remembrance offering (cf. Psalm 103:2 i.c.w. Matthew 6:33).

 

2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – …

 

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (note: natural provision) will be given to you as well.

 

As God’s people we need to have the correct insight into prosperity on the basis of God’s Word. By the Word of God we can clearly see that silver and gold are the LORD’s (cf. Haggai 2:8).

 

8 “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the LORD Almighty.

 

Because God is Spirit, we can firstly see a spiritual principle at work here emphasizing the importance of the presence of the Word of God (Note: silver, cf. Psalm 12:6), and the gold resulting from this (Note: richness in faith). It is faith that comes from hearing the Word of God (cf. Romans 10:17).

 

7 And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.

 

17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

 

The application of this principle involves a lifestyle of worship by the sons of God in Christ Jesus so as to honor the Heavenly Father (cf. John 4:23-24).

 

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’

 

Because of this we may acknowledge that we spend time in the Word of God, for through this our faith continually grows anew.

 

This investment of time into God’s Word results in a greater value, including faith as well as the presence of His glory. The glory of God is connected, among other things, to always generating an increase in every area, because earthly prosperity and wealth have their seat in the spiritual world (cf. Proverbs 22:4).

 

4 Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honour and life.

 

The earnest use of finances in the heavens is about entering into the presence of God, connecting with all of the LORD’s provision, then bringing it down to earth and releasing it in its fullness in life for blessing.

 

Through Jesus Christ we have the right to invest into heaven in order to connect with what He already legitimately allotted to us by His victory on the cross and His resurrection, so that we administer it on earth (cf. Matthew 6:20 i.c.w. Ephesians 1:22-23).

 

20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

 

22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

 

When earthly prosperity comes to us by the grace of God, we need to rightly administer the ‘gold’ He entrusted us with in the form of prosperity on the basis of the truth of God’s word. 

 

This correct way of handling wealth means the sincere exaltation of God. It is similar to the golden objects or the utensils in the tabernacle and the temple that were covered with gold (cf. Exodus 25:10-13.31; Exodus 26:29-30.32.37).

 

10 ‘Let them make an ark of acacia wood – two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold moulding around it.
12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.
13 Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. …

31 ‘Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them.

 

29 Overlay the frames with gold and make gold rings to hold the crossbars. Also overlay the crossbars with gold.
30 ‘Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain. …

… 32 Hang it (note: the curtain) with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases.

… 37 Make gold hooks for this curtain and five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold. And cast five bronze bases for them.

 

If our prosperity does not have a structure of reverence towards God, the Heavenly Father, it can cause us to fall quickly, because in this case we define ourselves through our own person or our own established structures and cover them with our own ‘gold’ or riches (cf. 1 Timothy 6:10).

 

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

 

Greed or lust after money and wealth is a fallen kind of worship, because the center of worship is money instead of God.

 

Thus it becomes clear to us that, through a wrong attitude of heart, we can engage in misguided financial administration in the realm of the Spirit, which in the end results in falling, as it happened to King Cyrus, for instance, who can also be seen as an allegory for Satan (cf. Ezekiel 28:16-18).

 

16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
18 By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.

 

Whatever we as sons of God invest for the honor of the LORD and lay down before Him, initiates the process of a righteous heavenly ‘trade deal’ causing us to increase in blessing and strength in Jesus Christ.

 

 

This increase is connected with continuous thankfulness and thanksgiving in true worship of the Father, which means we as mature sons have learned that God is the giver of all good gifts, and we should be rich in a meek (Note: humble) way (cf. James 1:16-17; James 4:13-15).

 

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

 

13 Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’

 

Accordingly, we constantly consecrate our personal economy by keeping our hearts as disciples focused on the Master, Jesus Christ, who has preceded us in everything. Thus we protect our inner man from false worship (Note: a false sense of security in existential abundance) in order to live as a living sacrifice for the glory and honor of God, which is our calling (cf. Romans 12:1-2).

 

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

We invest our time into fellowship with God’s word, which teaches us wisdom and grace for relationships (Note: with the Father in the Heavens, with ourselves, and our neighbor) we have been entrusted with. We invest our time into relationships God entrusts to us, while investing finances into God’s Kingdom and generating blessing for our environment through the work of our hands.

 

In everything, we sanctify ourselves in the use of the resources entrusted to us, having the clarity and complete certainty that, according to the Word of God, we are urged to live purely in everything and to be free in all existential circumstances (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 i.c.w. Philippians 4:12-13).

 

7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

12 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.
13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

 

Therefore the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of truth, guides us in our daily administration in order to faithfully help us, as administrators in God’s Kingdom, take the blessing from the supernatural realm and bring it into the natural realm of relationships (Note: every relationship, whether professional or personal), so that we submit material values under the immaterial values of the LORD.

Amen and Amen.

 

In His Wisdom,

 

Daniel and Tina Glimm