MOney Wisdom 2

Hi all,
I'm continuing the series about wisdom in finances, but first... A small group of us from our Tulsa house churches will be visiting our Arlington, Texas affiliate on Sunday November 14. If you can join us email Jason and Verna Snoddy at snoddyfam@sbcglobal.net.

To the right you'll see links to Saturday's Webinar (6 Nov) on "The Kingdom of Heaven". Part 1 is understanding Jesus as an Oriental King. This is how I walk with the Father and Lord - the perspective I have and how I approach them. It will help many pieces of your puzzle about God fall into place.

Also to the right, a new 2-cd series "What the Bible really says about divorce". Lastly, my new 4-cd series "Salvation Displayed in the Stars" also includes a 36 page study guide. It's about God's original intention when He said in Genesis 1:14 of the stars: "Let them be for signs..." They've been perverted by mythology and horoscopes and such, but this study goes back to the original star names, original pictures portrayed in the constellations, and so much more.

Bringing you up to speed
Last week I shared that while the opening of the windows of heaven in Malachi 3 for those hearers in 400BC was literal rain for their crops, for us the 'water' is a type of the flowing Holy Spirit in revelation, creativity, and wisdom sent to water our "crops" - our work, family, possessions, etc. Today I'm building on that.

The issue: I'm not getting rich on $4.25 an hour
Most pastors preach that if you give to God He will give you increase, so church members naturally look for at least some 'bump' in their finances from God when they give; something to indicate God is really fulfilling what they believe He promised to do. When that doesn't happen they wonder what they are doing wrong.

I've talked to people working hard at hourly jobs wondering why God isn't giving them the big increase. I've talked to salaried employees wondering the same thing - they give generously to their own financial hurt, yet seem to be treading water in their bank account.

Back in the late 1970's to early 1980's the fad doctrine many pastors focused on then was the 100 fold return. In the 80's there was talk of giving to the temple in order to be blessed. In the 90's giving to the apostle or pastor, sometimes so corrupted they demand the tithe to the church, but any outside income has to be tithed directly to the man of God. (Run don't walk to the nearest exit)

Today the fad is to focus on giving as it relates to Jewish feasts. But what goes around comes around, so elements of all these are still out there and pulled off the shelf by pastors from time to time to motivate parishioner's to give, and all have the common denominator of promising wealth & blessing from above.

In 1978-79 I worked at Jim Bakker's PTL Club in Charlotte, NC, and Barb and I faithfully tithed on my $150 per week paycheck (net $111.50), thinking that with every $15 check we wrote we'd get back 100 fold, or $1500, and it couldn't come fast enough. Never did though, and we wondered why.

But we repented of that foolishness when we felt grieved every time we wrote out that check, but didn't know why. One day Barb nailed it. She said that we used to give out of a heart of love, and when we got caught up in the 100 fold return teaching we left love and got into greed, giving expecting a big return right away instead of just giving out of love for God and man - and she was right. As I said, we repented, continued to give, and the Father took care of us, though not with the abundance the preacher said He would. We wondered why.

Back in 1982 I was between churches and took a job with Domino's Pizza. I was 24 years old with a family to support, and the $4.25 per hour made it tough to pay the rent. Just when we needed some cash, I'd get a chance to deliver pizzas which gave me cash and a net hourly pay of about $10. We've always been givers, and we made it through, but we never saw that super abundance our pastor kept saying we'd see. So I started digging in the Word for answers, and asking the Father to show it to me.

What your job does
If you examine the people in the Bible where their jobs are mentioned, you'll find a common fact; Their job puts a roof over their head and not much else. Perhaps I should state it another way: Their jobs alone didn't provide abundance for them. A few examples:
Luke 5:10 says Peter, James, and John were partners in the fishing business, which meant they were business owners, but they were the only 3 employees. They took care of their families, but they weren't rich.

Paul worked as a tent maker in Corinth in Acts 18:1-3 for 18 months or so, the only time he worked a regular job in over 30 years of ministry, but it was needful in Corinth at that time. He partnered with Aquila and Priscilla, but they didn't grow wealthy from it.

When we consider Matthew's job as a tax collector made him sole proprietor and lone employee, and that he could just get up and walk away, shows us he did well enough to support himself, but not above that.

Streams of income
Your job, your single paycheck, should be thought of as a single stream of water flowing towards you. In the Bible, in the examples above, no one gathers wealth by 1 income source, 1 steam flowing towards them.

But there are examples of wealth we can look at to see what God's pattern is. In the book of Job we have just such an example. According to Job 1:3, Job had many streams of income flowing towards him:

7,000 sheep. That meant wool to weave and meat to sell.
3,000 camels. Camels were the semi-trucks, lorries in the King's English, long haul vehicles of the day. That meant Job was into import/export business in long caravans across desert expanses. An average caravan was less than 50 camels, so at any given time he had 60 'trucks' on the caravan road.
500 yoke of oxen, or 1000 oxen. Plus he would have had cows and calves. A yoke of oxen was for plowing fields and grinding grain, so he was a farmer and rancher. He would have had income from milk, cheese, leather, and buying and selling cattle, etc.
500 female donkeys. These were the short haul trucks of his day - local deliveries - individual 'vehicles'.

Look at the streams of income flowing towards him: Wool, mutton, imported goods, more meat, leather, milk, cheese, grain crops, the real estate for that whole operation. Every one of these items is a separate stream flowing towards him. How many streams do you have flowing towards you? How many streams do you have where money is flowing AWAY from you? Cut the outward flow, develop the inward flow.

In chapters 29 & 31 Job talks of how he lived to give and was honest in all his dealings. This included everything from feeding & lodging strangers with his own food, to clothing the needy with his own wool. He was a generous employer and took care of orphans and widows, and God blessed him.

But Job had not 1, but many steams of income flowing towards him, and he built them up over years in concentrated effort, sowing profits back into the business and diversifying as one stream naturally flowed from the original. What I mean by that is the having a cow/calf lends itself to milk, buy a bull and you make more cows, get enough and you can sell meat and milk - one stream is a tributary from the main, and flows TOWARDS you.

For pastors to focus on giving as the end all answer to be blessed financially, is great error and has enslaved many good hearted people. Giving is a part of being financially blessed, but only part. Developing various streams of income is foundational!

Ladies too
Consider the Proverb 31 woman, mentioned in verses 10-31. She owns a weaving business and has employees, and is compared to a merchant ship, meaning she isn't making those linens and wool material for herself, but to sell.

Verse 16 says "She considers a field, and buys it, and with the fruit of her hands (her profit in other words) she plants a vineyard." So she is diversifying to gain other streams of income.

We could make comparisons from Abraham (many streams of income) to Gideon (single stream) to even Jesus, who in Luke 8:3 says many people from various backgrounds gave to support him and his disciples.

If you think your 1 paycheck will make you rich, you are mistaken, unless that income is derived from many streams flowing in. That's just chapter and verse.

Some examples in our day of those streams of income can be retirement plans, stocks and bonds, owning more than 1 business, diversifying a client base, investment in rental properties/land, and so forth.

This principle is the same for businesses. I was asked to provide guidance to a karate studio that was losing money. The owner was the daughter of one of my mom's friends in south Florida, and I could see the problem immediately. She was providing karate instruction to children under the age of 12. That was her sole source of income. She lived among a high concentration of retired people, but catered to kids.

My advice was to meet the needs of her area, and expand to include classes for teens, adults, self protection classes for women, exercise classes in her studio, partner with instructors who would bring clientele in to her shop and work a split on the fees charged, etc. She had never thought of her business as needing several streams of income flowing in.

If a business has 1 main stream, it will dry up, or at least is highly susceptible to changes in the market, just like that employee who's sole source of income is that 1 paycheck from that 1 company.

Putting it together thus far
Last week I shared what the Father taught me about the flow being revelation and wisdom from the Holy Spirit to water our 'crops' - what do you think those creative ideas are for? They are to provide us different streams of income. We have to sort out what ideas work and don't work, as the Proverbs 31 woman 'considered' the field before she invested, but if we do our homework God will bless.

The Father is rarely a get rich quick kind of Father. Rather than depending on miracles to see us through each crises, we are to be in a flow of revelation put to good use to establish different streams of income flowing our way.

Learning what is our responsibility and what is God's, among other things, is the subject for next week.

Blessings,
And once again, remember for personal email to use cwowi@aol.com
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch. org