Today we are going to talk about
the most controversial subject in the world.
Wait...?...what is that?
Duh. It’s hot, sexy, MONEY! Why would I say that this is the most
controversial subject in the world?
Because this is the very basis over which all of our wars are being
fought. Money is also the leading cause
of stress and anxiety, which eventually shut down the immune system and rack
your body with all kinds of sickness and disease. All for what?
Some theoretical pieces of paper issued by a “bank” that requires your
trust that the currency issued actually has any worth. I’m not trying to start a “down with the
system” rebellion. In fact to start a
rebellion would be to acknowledge that I wasn’t free and there was something to
fight against, thus if I am fighting, I’m acknowledging that something other
than God himself is ruling over me.
Money=War. Bottom line. For a little more grounding on how the
monetary system works, I would suggest perusing a couple of articles I wrote in
the past. Although reading these is not
essential to understanding what I want to focus on today, I do think they will
bless you in demonstrating further how absolutely free you are from debt. http://beardsloveandhappiness.blogspot.com/2012/11/war-and-mans-honour.html http://beardsloveandhappiness.blogspot.com/2012/11/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.html
I’m usually not one
to promote my own work. But in the
context of what I’m writing about, and a lot of what readers have said they’re
interested in and have more questions about, I feel these three articles will
really bless you and give you some grounding into doing your own research, and
also, for the sake of this post and future posts, make it to where I don’t have
to constantly re-explain things.
Before I say anything more about
money, I want to make one blanket statement, and I’m probably going to repeat
it several times throughout the article because I really want this to sink
in: THE TRUE VALUE AND WEALTH OF ALL
THINGS HAS ALWAYS BEEN PEOPLE THEMSELVES.
So if true value and worth is
and always has been in the people, the true reward is people, then why all of
the struggle for $? Because there is
still an overwhelming sin-consciousness that pervades the operation of the
world system that does not align with the principles of The Kingdom of
God. In this sense, we see that there
are two operative realms at work and thus two different sets of laws. Yes, there are laws in the Kingdom! This is the law of perfect liberty that James
urges us to stare into in order to see the face of our birth (James 1:23-25). Kingdom laws and principles are always based
upon right relationship and the unequivocal, eternal fact that you are
free! The laws of the world are still
drenched in sin consciousness and an idea of separation. In this realm, all aren’t free, thus debts
are owed and must be paid in order to balance out accounts. This is why you get calls from creditors, or
arrested by the police, or why a nation with a vast army will invade and occupy
another country. All of the world system
is based on the idea that something is owed to someone else.
This can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden and the fall
of man. Once man became aware of a
distance or an interruption in his union with God, he now, through the work of
his own hands, had to try to do something to cover up or atone for the
distance. This is why it is so
imperative and multilayered when Jesus says, “who the Son sets free is free
indeed,” in John 8:36. He is not merely
stating that we are free (which is a big deal, btw) but he is also revealing a
very important aspect of the operation of the kingdom. The realm from whence you were born, your
point of origin in the bosom of the Father, is a place whose very foundation is
freedom. This is in stark contrast to
the operation of the world system. Our
duty as sons and daughters of the king is to understand the laws and mandates
of Heaven, and execute these on the earth.
To open this up a bit, I would
like to define some terms. When I say
the world or the world system, I’m not talking about the earth. What I’m referring to is the ego, the
intellect, or anything that forms its foundation upon a temporary reality. It is essential to begin getting revelation
on this in order for the Holy Spirit to disciple your mind. In Galatians 5:17-22, Paul addresses this
very concept, and often it is misapplied among the body of Christ. Paul relates that the flesh wars against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
The flesh here is not referring to the physical body, but instead refers
to a realm of temporary existence where things have an expiration date. Paul is illuminating how this mindset
automatically sets itself against an eternal mindset and how the two contradict
one another. The Spirit, on the other
hand, is eternal and will repeatedly offend the fleshly mentality until the
flesh/the world/the intellect/the temporary mindset is completely and
consciously subject to The Spirit, which proceeds straight from the throne room
of heaven. In this realm there are
different laws and principles at work, most of which contradict what
the world tells the darkened mind is “common sense.”
So
how does this apply to money?
$$$$$$$ Simple. There is no money in the Kingdom of
Heaven. If this is our point of origin,
our place of birth, and there is no money, then why are we worrying about
money? Remember: THE TRUE VALUE AND WEALTH OF
ALL THINGS HAS ALWAYS BEEN PEOPLE THEMSELVES.
Fun fact about our current monetary system, any country that is plugged
into the Federal Reserve banks, being that there is no collateral to back up
the “money” the banks are printing, these countries have literally pledged
their people as the collateral, or the substance that gives the money any
value. Think about that the next time
you get a paycheck. Those numbers that
get funnelled into your account are actually guaranteed secured and given every
ounce of their value by you. It’s quite
ironic is it not? That even in a system
that equates value by theoretical numbers, formulas and derivatives, all
spinning in a cycle of debt-consciousness, even by the world system’s own
admission, you are ultimately the one that holds all the power and creates all
the value. In a word, the system cannot
operate or function without you, period.
Pardon my Spanish, but I think this is powerful stuff.
From a ministerial point of view
then, what is all the fuss about money? If there is no money in the kingdom, then why
are we always asking for offerings, etc. etc.?
Simply put, the entire world has not stepped into agreement with the laws
of the kingdom. For many of us, we grew
up in the generation of televangelism, where many rather corrupt spiritual
leaders lived in opulence while their followers and the communities around them
were struggling to make ends meet. While
much of this has been used as propaganda to make Christian culture appear as a
bunch of money-grubbing super right wing white collar bigots, those of us who
know better still get suspicious when a preacher or evangelist asks for
money. What is the big deal with taking
up an offering, and why so often do we hesitate to throw in a few dollars? After all, the money isn’t “real”,
right? So what gives? If we are supposed to be the most generous
and care-free people on the planet, why, the second someone asks for a few bucks
(whether they need it or not) do we shut down and react like they’re trying to
take something from us?
Poverty is a mindset and has
absolutely diddly squat to do with how much is in your bank account.
We know that according to the
new covenant it is no longer required for us to tithe. Every rule and regulation that had Israel and
consequently the rest of mankind at odds with God has been erased (Col. 2:14). You see, as per the Jewish requirement to
tithe (10% of annual income roughly), God secured, through a regulation,
provision for generation upon generation throughout the nation of Israel. Even today more than 80% of all people that
are employed by the world bank system are of Jewish decent. If you study the history out, this is a
direct result of the tithing system set in place long ago in the days of
Moses. In the new covenant, our
requirement to tithe has been abolished.
You don’t have to give one red cent to any minister or church or other
person if you don’t want to. But the freedom,
the absolute sloppy drunken freedom is that now you GET to give everything away
without a requirement or penalty.
Unfortunately, because of corruption among the body sovereign, many who
name themselves among the body of Christ have trouble with the question of
money. How much do I give? Do I give at all? In the past two years, in my own experience,
the amount at which the general population of Christians is sowing financially
has completely dropped off. I find it
hard to grant that the body of Christ as a whole has gained real wisdom in
handling both finances and their freedom (see Galatians 5:13), when more and
more ministers, evangelists and churches as are struggling financially. As Paul named it in I Corinthians, "Don't muzzle the ox." If these guys are out there in the fields, treading the grain, give them a little something to eat. Certainly, many large ministries, and the way
ministry has been typically perceived, generally carries a lot of dead
financial burdens. Personally, I think
doing more home meetings, or meeting in public places are great venues that
lower the massive overhead costs of renting or owning a ginormous
building. But 20 years ago, financing
the church wasn’t a problem. What
happened? Or what is happening? Simply put, the body isn’t putting their
money where their mouth is. Bottom
Line. IF THERE IS A NEED TO BE MET AND
YOU HAVE THE MEANS TO MEET THAT NEED, THEN MEET THE NEED! It’s simple.
You are supporting your own body.
Yet many of us will go to meetings, or be truly blessed by someone who
professes to be a full-time evangelist and we won’t even throw a dollar their
direction. In the meantime, we go to the
store, buy a t-shirt and pay 8.25% sales tax on the item, which in reality, the
sales tax we have just willingly paid, was a tithe into the world banking
system! Why will we shun the minister
with our “freedom” and say, “I don’t have to give you money, bro. I’m not under the law,” but yet submit
ourselves willingly to tithing into a different kingdom? I’m not throwing punches at any one group in
particular here. Think if we matched a
sales tax percentage towards a charitable donation every time we heard a good
word from somebody. At this point, I’m
probably ranting, but my desire is for the Body of Christ to wake up and rule
the financial world like they were meant to, and turn this debt-based world
system on its head and into a free economy representative of the kingdom of
heaven.
My wife and I like to play a fun
game we call “sowing against our offense.”
So let’s say we’re at a meeting and a speaker gives an absolutely
horrendous word. He misquotes scripture,
he is generally unpleasant, and every five minutes he reminds the audience to
make sure and make their checks out to XXX.
Even though this whole thing is terrible and we haven’t felt truly
blessed by what the speaker has said, we are still going to write him a fat
check. Why? It’s not that we necessarily agree with
anything he said, that’s not what our $ is sowing into. Instead, we’re choosing to sow into who that
man is as a person. Since we may not be
able to spend a lot of time with the speaker and get to know him on a more
personal level, our money is simply an instrument or tool used to communicate
how valuable when think that man is.
Another fun way you can sow against your offense is if you’re at a
restaurant and your waiter is terrible, I mean absolutely awful, instead of
stiffing him or her, leave them a $25, $50 or $100 tip. Once again, this communicates that the person
is valuable apart from their deeds. It’s
funny, the more and more my wife and I adopt this mentality and step into this
revelation, the more and more money seems to come and go...and the less we seem
to care about it.
Some fun testimony from the past
year. So I’ve been getting all of our
tax documents together, getting our returns ready to file. In looking at the books, my wife and I have
collectively given away more money than we made during 2012. I’m not quite sure how this is possible,being
that we have bills to pay and whatnot, but the math doesn’t lie. The only thing I can say to that is it must
be kingdom logic in action.
So the next time you see that
dirty man by the over pass holding up a cardboard sign, don’t feel so closed
off to his request. Who cares if he
spends the $ you give him on crack or cigarettes or booze? You’re investing in his life, his being, not
his deeds.
Let’s rethink and let the eyes
of love reform our methods of understanding value.
You can check out our upcoming
events and crusades at ekstasisministries.org.
I love you,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment