Transcription
Everyone wants to get to the high places, but if you want to go high, you first have to go deep. All right, what's up? Welcome back to the deep end. We're going to talk a little bit in this talk about, um, honestly, what I want to talk about is how, how do you get, how do you get rich without falling prey to a love of money?
Because now there's all sorts of people who apparently hate me, uh, on our socials. Who I was, I figured this out, dude. I was like, if you want to see, if you want to see the worst of human, like, impulses, try to remove poverty from a Christian. If you want to see people really get mad at you, try to help a Christian not be broke. And all of a sudden, boom, it's like, oh, your love of money is the root of all evil. What I'm like, yo, there is, there's no, uh, there's no where in history where there's been a movement that happened because everyone was broke, living in tents, trying to make their own fire. That's not how society advances. Like, but there is a point, and I think that some people are on to this. You caught me. We got to talk about it.
Now she's like, how do you accrue resources without serving resources where your heart is? They're also your treasure lies. And so we have to be very careful. This is a very important topic to master because if you do not, a believer with a big mission and a big calling, like an elephant at birth, that is chained to a stake in the ground, they learn their own limitations. And then when that elephant becomes huge and massive and can easily pull that stake out of the ground, they do not because they believe that they cannot and should not. This is the world of, of a lot of Christians in the world of finance. It's not that you cannot be financially prosperous. It's that since an early age, you learned to respect a limitation. And now, because you have not fully been healed, you are being limited by this little bitty thing in the ground. And you no longer even try to pull it out of the ground. This is the kingdom believer mindset.
And I want to give you a, what I think is, this is what God has showed me about money. Because when, when I was poor, when, let's just call it what it is, like, when you grow up poor, like the, the last thing you want to do if you escape it is to go back to being poor. Yeah, you're terrified. Me and my wife, one time, we, we had just gotten married. I was on staff at a church, and they gave me a raise because they're so generous. Uh, I was making $14,000 a year. They said, hey, you've gotten married, we're going to give you a raise to $18,000 a year. And I'm like, you know what? I was like, you know what? I thought in that moment, amazing, this is great. 'Cause like an extra $4,000 a year, like we can, you know, change the oil in our car without doing it ourselves. I think someone hurt you once or twice on this. We have another video on, we have another video on bitterness and forgiveness. You just go watch that one. And then swinging out of the gate, you know, maybe send it to me so I can like, watch my own training and, and learn from it. Yeah. Uh, no, I forgive. I forgive these people and it's, it's totally okay. I was in a season of learning. I was in a season where God had to teach me some things. But, um, man, we were so poor. And my wife, one time at church service, uh, I remember there was maybe $180, $170 in our bank account. It's like our, our main bank account. And, um, we have groceries that got to come out of this. Like, we've got to, you know, pay rent that's got to come out of this. And I'm making, uh, what is that? $1,600 bucks a month. And the pastor gets up there, and the pastor, it was a guest pastor, they were in town. I think it might have been Priscilla Shire. Dude, $1,600 a month? Yes. Dude, so Pastor Priscilla Shire, who is amazing, um, she was in town at this church in Memphis. It's called The Life Church. And, uh, Priscilla starts talking about some, some ministry. And she's, she's talking about money, or she's talking about faith. Or sorry, dude, that's $11,100. Even, even worse. I was even poorer than I thought. $291 a week divided by 40, bro. You're making $7 an hour. Seven bucks an hour. Um, and, and working my little heart out. Like I was not only leading worship, I was over staff volunteers. I would show up on Saturdays and clean the building. Uh, I was all in. Mhm. And Priscilla's preaching, and my wife is like, moved by it. My wife has always been so sensitive to like it. She's so sensitive to the things of God. And, um, bro, she just gets out her phone and she goes to the church app and she gives two like $160. Like, all of the money in our bank account. And I am, I don't find out for like two days. And I am so, so mad. And I'm actually confused. I'm like, do, do you not know how to count? Like, we have to, can you subtract? Like, look at, we have like $10 now. She said, God told me to do it. I was like, okay, well, that's cool. Like, you need to go like, get some clients because if God told you to do it, then we need to do it. And we didn't overdraft somehow. I don't know how we did an overdraft. Um, but this was like our, our entire reality. So gener, gener. I had, I had a pastor one time, and he took me to lunch in this sort of season. And it was maybe a year after I'd moved on from church staff. And, uh, we're, we're going to lunch at a place called Humdingers in Memphis. It was like a fish and chips restaurant. And I pull out my card and I'm going to pay for lunch. He says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, when you make more money than me, you can pay for lunch. And in the moment, I was like, that's pretty cool. Like, I like that. And then years later, I was like, that's not God. That's actually, you do not have generosity. Does not come from you having, uh, more money than someone else. Generosity, this, my wife taught me this. Like, generosity is actually an act of obedience. Yeah. When you are, when you are instructed or compelled to give, you give. Whether you, real, like, have the money or not. Like, generosity has a way of being a cause, not the effect. So we have to get this right. Generosity is not the effect of having surplus. Generosity is the cause of having surplus. And I think part of the reason I struggled for so many years is, you know, my, my giving was based on my bank account. And now our giving is based on what is God asking us to do? And it's not a bad idea, bro, to sometimes ask God, how do you want me to give to this? Even tithing has become religious. Do I act? Let's, let's break this open. Do I believe that tithing is a law? Like, is it a sin not to tithe? No, I don't. I don't believe that. I don't believe that it's a sin not to tithe. Do I, do I believe that you have to give 10%? No. I believe that you can give 10% of everything you make from a spirit of servanthood, and you can be less blessed than someone who gives 5% from a place of sonship. I do not believe that it comes down to some weird regulatory thing in the Bible. I believe generosity is something that we've been instructed to do, and we should ask God and include God in our financial decisions. But back to the point, um, that'll be a good clip. That'll make the haters mad. If, if you look at money, money, and physical fitness, and emotional alignment, and knowledge, the intellect, all of these things are good things. They are things that we should have more of. In fact, in the, in the Old Testament, uh, there's a verse, and I forget where it's at. If you want to look it up, you can. I mean, people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge. Do you want me to wait for you? Oh, you don't have to wait for me, man. Oh, let's wait for you, dude. Okay. Hosea 4:6. My people, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge. Okay. So we have all, I, I think that this, this is worth, like, should you learn? Some people are like, like, you know, I don't even need to know. I just need, just trust God. Okay, cool. But God has given us brains for a reason. He's given us intellect for a reason. He's, he's giving us, he's given us language for a reason. And so there are things that you just have to learn. You should learn them because if you have the requisite knowledge, you can have a sounder form of dominion over something. So imagine King David, who everyone knows who King David is. Imagine if he was some, just like, little spindly little boy who couldn't hold a sword well. He, he would probably die. Like, that wasn't part of the, that wasn't part of the package. Hey, yo, go train, get in shape, chase the, chase the bear, chase the lion, do all of the stuff. Daniel in the Old Testament was, uh, you know, he was known for his discipline inside of his dietary restrictions and his fasting. And fasting, even now, scientists have connected fasting with a form of, um, autophagy, which actually cleanses the body. So all of these spiritual principles are good. Can we just accept that there are, there are things that we need to learn if we want to advance? Money is one of those things. And I am of the mind, based on study and revelation, that it is an odd oxymoron for someone to have inherited the cattle on a thousand hills and be [Music] stewardship over belongings in property, fear and bondage. It is gross, and as believers, we should not partake in it. It's pretty strong.
When my husband and I first started in full-time preaching ministry, the Lord invited us to live by faith with no visible means of support. This is crazy, dude. What I'm about to read you, we were to tell no one of our needs, only God. For five years, we daily stood on the promises of God's word for provision. So they're not allowed to work, and they're not allowed to make money, and they're not allowed to tell anyone that they need money. It's a pretty interesting story. It was a very challenging period. Uh, yeah, I can see why. We were tempted daily with lies in our mind that taunted us. You are on the wrong path. God is not providing, and he won't. You are deceived to think that he will. Notice this, this lie. This is against. Nowhere in this did the temp say, you're poor, you have no money. It was about God. This is all the central theme. Like in the, in the garden, did God actually say this? Like, it's all about God's reputation with us. What do we believe about God? That's why, that's why money is such an important thing because money reveals what you believe about your father. It appeared that lack was prevailing rather than abundant life that we were promised. But we faithfully stood on the word regarding his provision. The Bible says that you will reap in due time if, if you do not grow weary in doing well. This is Galatians 6:9. Believing God's word and obeying it is well-doing. So this is actually an interesting connection. Sometimes just refusing to believe a lie and believing God is the well-doing. Well, we don't have time to talk about that. But our breakthrough came very suddenly after five years of prevailing with his promises. Five years is a long time, bro. Five years is a long time to be stuck in this position.
I have a really, I have a friend who goes to a church down in Spring Hill. And he did trading, he ran businesses, very successful. God called him to move to Spring Hill, I think from Minneapolis. And he said for, um, two and a half years, God made, God told him, live in a van. He's got four kids. And every day they would, they weren't allowed to work. Similar story. And just people would send checks. Police officers would stop on the side of the road and give them money randomly. And then about a year in, God told him to start keeping a budget. And he said, no. He's like, I'm not going to keep a budget. You won't let me work, you won't let me make any money. What's there to budget? There's nothing here. And he's like, he's so, so angry. And, and God's taking him through this process. And one day, he, he finally kind of gets through it. And he's like, whatever, we'll stay in this van as long as you want us to stay. Surrender happens. And one day, his, uh, his daughter wakes up and she says, Dad, I think we're about to get a house. And he's like, I don't, I don't have the, I don't know how to explain to her that you have to have money to get a house. You know, like that doesn't work. And he, he's like, I don't think so, honey. And she said, no, God told me that when I was old enough, that my, when I was laying down in the back of the van and my feet touched the passenger chair, that was the time we got to leave the van and get a house. And two days later, someone like gave them a house. And then God was like, go back to work, get it done. He owns real estate all over the place. He runs a really successful fund right now. And you listen to the story and you're just like, okay, well, if you don't think God's real after that, you're just stupid.
Well, if you think about it, like poverty is such a sad place. How embarrassing is it that you say that you serve such a big God, and then you're at lunch and they just can never afford anything? The problem is not that people, I don't think. I think the issue is that it's like people, people are like, they see it as like, it's a holy thing to be poor. Mhm. That's not. They think it's holy. Like, oh, it's a good thing that I'm poor. Like, it's an indicator that I'm a follower of Jesus. Like, in the excuses, well, I'm going to be poor here because my kingdom, my, my riches are in heaven. And that's, that's where I'm getting my, that's where I'm going to get to enjoy my riches. And it's like, what you said in past episodes rings true in the sense of, you have to be able to hold the attention of, like, yes, you're going to be far richer in heaven than you'll be rich here. And, and it's not a wicked thing to have money if you're using it the right way. Jesus wasn't, Jesus was like, secondarily concerned with getting people to heaven. It wasn't even his first thing. He most of what Jesus talked about was like bringing heaven here. So that's even an interesting thing where it's like, heaven's not like, I don't, heaven's not like a place we're going to get to and it's like, forget the earth, forget the world. No, heaven's something we have to bring here. Um, and so we, we'll talk about that later. The reason I'm sharing these stories though, is because unless you've been given specific instruction by God to go through a season of poverty, it is probably demonic. And so there are some people who are going to be like, well, God told me so, you're wrong. No, no, no. That's an outlier. It's an outlier. The kingdom reality should be like dominion, inheritance, and possession. Because if you have dominion and no possession, you don't really have dominion. We'll talk about that later.
So she says, she gets this in this, uh, this book. And then she gives this list of decrees. What's a decree? A decree is a mandate. It's a word that is, is, uh, infallible. And here are the decrees. This is all based in scripture. Uh, all the gold and all the silver belongs to God. Because I am his child, I have access to all that it is through Jesus Christ. Is that true or false, Jake? It's true. True. My God meets all my needs according to his riches in Christ. True or false? True. I look to God as the source of all my provision. Oh, here we start hitting like some interesting roadblocks. 'Cause, 'cause when, when money becomes evil, or when money becomes a, um, a temptation, is when we don't look to God. We look to our money. I worship and love God and not money. So she's diving into the deep, the deep end here. The Lord makes me abound in prosperity. True or false? True. True. I will lend to many. True or false? Yep. I will increase and multiply in houses, land, gold, and silver. And when I do, I will not forget the Lord my God. I will worship him and obey him all the days of my life. Let me read you one more thing, and then we'll get into some like, let's just have a healthy, productive, uh, debate on this. I want to read the Amplified version. This is Psalm 92, verse, um, 12. 92:12. You ready? Yep. The righteous will flourish like palm trees, long-lived, upright, and useful. I think useful is a really interesting word. Useful implies that you have something to give, you have something to contribute. They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon, majestic, majestic, and stable, planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish. He uses the word flourish twice. Growing in grace, they will thrive and bear fruit and prosper in old age. So this language is riddled with flourishing, prospering, thriving. And then there's this little caveat that he like sneaks in here, almost like we won't notice, which is utility. They will be useful. There's utility to it. When you look at the utility of our, our kingdoms or our states, so to speak, the utility typically is going to be fueled by money. If you have a car with no gasoline, what's the utility? Zero. It's worthless. It's not useful. It's not useful to have a car with no, no fuel. If you have a Tesla, like one we have in the garage, and there's no battery to it, it's not useful. You can't do anything with it. When you look at a person's actual existence here on this plane, we're supposed to bring heaven to earth. We're supposed to fund things that are important. Money access, gasoline that fuels the automobile of impact. It is difficult, some would say impossible, for you to fully work out all that you're supposed to work out and do all that you're supposed to do if you are at the mercy of everyone else with money. Does this make sense? Yeah.
So how does this get twisted up? If I'm, if I'm being honest, which I am, I found myself on the wrong side of this equation. So what's the definition of idolatry? Something that you just worship. Okay, let's just make it, let's expound on that for a second. I have not been tempted to worship mud because there's no utility in that. It's kind of gross. If we want to specify this idea of idolatry, most of the idols in our lives are good things, or else there would be no temptation. I have not wrestled with idolatry where I am worshiping or depending on something that has no use to me. So this is how this whole thing works. And this is why it's so important to learn. Money is, is one of the hardest idols to overcome because of how good it is, because of how useful it is. Because there are seasons you can go through, like what I went through, where I had so much money that I was not dependent on God because I didn't need to be. Does that make sense? Yeah. The same can be said with power structures. A lot of Christians in, uh, 2020, the election, were saying a lot of good things. And there were these prophetic words about Donald J. Trump. And you can see the, the church world kind of warped itself around this idea. That wasn't godly. Advocating for a good government is a good thing. But when that government begins to get above, in its, in its importance, when it begins to get above God, when you get your identity from the country you were born in, rather than the kingdom you belong to, it becomes idolatry. Money is the exact same way. And so when I came out of poverty, where my wife is like donating money that we don't have, and I remembered intimately what it felt like to be powerless, to have no control, you just get a touch of power, and the very first temptation is to just get more, more, more, more, more. So the problem with money is that if we're not careful, we can fall into this idolatrous pattern where we finally encounter abundance, and abundance becomes more important than what God is asking us to do. My wife never struggled with this. She's better than I am. I struggle with this. And I got to a place where I was like, yo, this is being a good steward. Giving that money is not good stewardship. You know, uh, not going for this business deal is not, not good stewardship. And all of a sudden, you start justifying this pursuit of wealth because of stewardship, stewardship, stewardship. But the, the, when you study biblical texts and narratives, what you realize is that the, the enemy has a, has an assignment against kingdom people. And that assignment is, can I remove not their money, but can I remove their dependence on God? Poverty is the same idolatry as the love of money. It's the same thing. It's two sides of the same coin. Because when you believe that you being poor buys your way into heaven, oh, oopsies. That is now become ahead of Jesus. Why do you think it's, why do you think people idolize poverty? What are some of those byproducts that they get out of it? I think it's just stupid Christians who don't know how to read. That's, that's honestly my point. I think it's just people who have not, they have gotten into a, uh, a servant relationship rather than a sonship relationship. And they don't actually, they don't actually ask God what the scripture means. And they don't actually ask God what the point is. Um, but this is also for business leaders who are not even, there are business owners who are going to watch this video who are not looking for a theological debate on money. They are like, if you're a business owner and you are constantly afraid that you're going to lose everything, more than likely you have an assignment to be a conduit, and you are called to be wealthy. And you have this, this, uh, demonic interference that is trying to actually get you to subscribe to Mammon or, uh, the law of the Canaanites, which is greed and power. So what the, what the enemy will do is, if like me, I was poor, and then at some point I became rich. And the, the hard thing to do would be to get me to go back to being rich, uh, poor, 'cause I just wouldn't do it. I would ignore it. So the substitute there was, I became a steward only interested in getting more money. And so my allegiance was switched around. And I began to act in a way that was ungodly because my defense was not God. My defense was money. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Does, I don't know if that answers a question that you actually had. I think the, you want me to talk to the Christians, is what you want me to do. Well, the problem is, I don't like them. So sometimes I don't want to talk to them. Sounds like you need to forgive them. No, I forgive. You can forgive. You can forgive someone and still, as a whole, the belief is like, yo, a lot more people would meet Jesus if it weren't for Christians. M. Because when you are a, when you are a Christian and you are representing your version of Jesus that is archaic and outdated and based in fear, dude, who's going to want to, who's going to want to convert to that? No one. So you, that I'm being real. But I, it's not, you can love someone and still, I'm annoyed by them. Because for the most part, the thing that holds people back from really trusting God is they see a bunch of other people who quote trust God, and their lives are horrible. Their lives are a mess. Their lives are a wreck. They're broken. And we got to get a hold of this if we're going to actually, uh, exhibit what it really looks like to be a son or a daughter of God. You do not see kings and leaders and orators throughout the Bible who accomplished what God wanted to accomplish them through their lives who were broke. You just don't see it. What, what do you see? You see Joseph, who becomes the second most powerful person in Egypt, and God uses that power, earthly power, to accomplish a supernatural assignment. You see Abraham, who was mind-blowingly wealthy, and, and he owned everything, and you see God use Abraham to then start the bloodline that would lead to Messiah. You see Melchizedek, who blessed him, who had a lot of money. You see Isaac, who's like walking around in the desert, and everywhere he goes, God gives him a well with water. You know, that was the signal of wealth back then. It was, do you have a, do you have, is the land good? If you have a well, the land is not good if it's barren. There's no well. So Isaac's digging up three, four, five wells, and people keep coming and taking them, and his men want to fight. And he's like, nope, God will give us another one. He goes to the next one, and he digs another well. You see these people who had the mightiest touch, they have just the, the mightiest touch. And that's the pattern that we see. And then all of a sudden, we fast forward to today, present age, and it's like, how you doing? How's your life? Oh, man, I'm just suffering for Jesus. No, you're not. You live in America. You're not suffering for Jesus. You're, you're being stubborn. You're being lazy. You refuse to do the work. And you're justifying your laziness by being like, well, this is just what God wants me to do. God doesn't want me to have a job. Okay, if God has specifically said that, that's fine. But most of y'all, you have bad theology. And how can I speak so aggressively on this? Because I was guilty of it. So I, you only see me light up on topics that I've personally experienced. Most of the time, I'm like, yeah, it could be, this could be that, you know, like, whatever. But with this, I'm like, no, there's a demonic assignment against Christians to just remove and strip the power and the resources from their lives. We can talk about how that actually works if you want. But you've opened up a can of worms. I've basically admitted that I don't like Christians in this video, which I'm probably going to have to go fix later 'cause you're going to cut that and post it everywhere for sure. I know you're making a good point though. We talked about this on the, on the last podcast of like, how many Christians won't deal with the problems in their life. And they won't, like the Bible's all about humility. If you want to be exalted, you must lower yourself. Yeah. And the biggest problem that I'm seeing in Christianity as a whole is not, it's not even money. It's, it's we won't even humble ourselves for long enough to even receive what God's saying. Yeah. 'Cause if we're not humble, we can't grow. If we're not humble, we can't grow in self-awareness. We won't learn anything new on the earth. And we'll just repeat the same mistakes of our fathers, do the same stupid things. And the entire time, Jesus is saying, humility, humility, humility. And I, I show you this because I get comments on videos that I've made too. I've had Christians that are like, they're dividing over like minutia, little words. And I'm like, why are you so stupid? I'm, I'm like, why are you dividing the body over this? Like, I don't get it. Why would you do this? This makes you and I both. I had something on a TikTok video where I had to call the dude out because I couldn't get him to respond to a message, 'cause I couldn't get him on the phone. I was like, I am just as sick of like, you're way more patient than I am, dude. Sure. Yeah. I'm just, I'm in the place of like, man, if we can get people to understand like, the humility is the answer, we can work through a lot of things. And that's not even just church, that's just like normal everyday life. That's like marriage, that's like a whole bunch of other things. If we start with humility, where do we, where can we go? Yeah, what can we figure out? What can we accomplish? 100%.
So how should we view money? Money is a, money is the byproduct of obedience. And so there's the, the way that the enemy has gotten us positioned is that we've reversed the cause and effect. So we think that obedience should be the byproduct of money. The God will tell you to do something, you're like, I, that is, that's not a good stewardship. I can't afford that. And what we don't realize is that if, if we view money the wrong way, then we'll always be chasing money, which is where people have a point. We're, it's like, okay, well, that's the, that is a root of a lot of unhealthy things. When, when you look at actual brass tacks, let's go, like, you know, let's go down to the studs on this. The, the mountain of economy you're called to, we're called to repair God's reputation around these different spheres of influence. And one of the biggest areas where God has been misrepresented is money. And what will happen to someone like me, or if you're watching this, and it's like, you know, yes, you believe in God, and but you also don't want to be poor. You like paying your bills. Great. That's good. Watch for this because the vulnerability that you have is this spirit of Mammon, which is greed. And you can recognize it by the things that it says. So anytime you feel like, we talked in the other video about forgiveness, like, I'm on my own. That's sometimes that's indicative of spirit of Mammon. And so you're about to probably step over a threshold where there is financial prosperity and abundance. And if the enemy can get you, think about this, like, there are these thresholds that the enemy can't go into. There are hedges. And a hedge is a spiritual barrier. You can't go through it. Okay? So if the enemy is, is not allowed to go past a threshold, the, the best opportunity he has to disrupt or wreak chaos is to plant something that you take with you through that threshold. Because then he doesn't even have to go through it. You just took him through it. You ever seen those old shows where, like, this is in like fantasy fiction, where there's like a, a magic wall, and the only way someone can go through if they're holding hands with you? And there's a kinesiology, like a connection point, and you can, you can actually take the enemy with you through a hedge that was designed to protect the enemy from the enemy, but you're taking him through, you through it with you. This is one of those things. If, if he can get you to agree to something, then he has access legally, even though there's a hedge that was supposed to protect you from him in that new season. And so this happened with me where there was a threshold. And right before you get to that threshold, the war becomes significant. And so anytime you, you know, wake up in the morning, we were talking about this yesterday, and you're just feeling like all these random things that I shouldn't be feeling, I'm feeling frustrated, agitated, apathetic. It's like, I know this isn't me. What's going on? Watch for this. You're right up against the threshold. And as soon as you go through it, game over, 'cause you've entered new territory. And the spirits or whatever that have been bothering you are no longer able to get through it. And they can see it. They're not stupid. I heard what Pastor the other day be like, the enemy is just stupid. That's your stupid dude. He's been around for like a millennia. He ain't stupid. He's very intelligent. And so they can see it. They can see thresholds. And if you make an agreement with something that is not godly, you carry him with you through it. And one of the, one of the most dangerous agreements that you can make is that the only way I can protect myself is through money. I need to accumulate resources or self-reliance, self-sustenance. These agreements are all really important. I'm telling you, if it doesn't, God will reveal things to you that aren't in scripture, but he'll never contradict scriptures. You have to be very careful with the things that we agree with because that opens up these weird dimensions. And so no matter what happens, if the, if you get something and it lowers your dependence on God, or it lowers the reputational equity that you have with God, it's your enemy. It doesn't matter if it's money, promotion, a wife, uh, it does not matter. A good thing that lowers your dependence and your view of God becomes a bad thing. And money is the, the probably the number one area of vulnerability that people have for this. Because they'll make a decision, they'll be like, well, it made me a lot of money, so it must be a good thing. But if that decision was made in a way that did not include God, and it cut God out of the equation, it's actually your enemy. It would be better for you to be broke and still have your equity with God than to get incredibly wealthy and lose your dependence on God. This is where we have to be so careful. And I, I remember praying one time, and, uh, this was back in the worship leader days. And, um, God asked me, he said, if you pray for this, and the answer I give you is that you do not get this, because I was looking for a promotion and I wanted to go on tour for something. God said, if, if you pray for this, and I tell you that you cannot have it, do you still want to pray for it? Y. I was like, I don't know. God said, that's the issue. It was a great little trap that I put myself into. But now I've been through enough, dude, where I'm like, God asked me right now, if you pray for this, and my will for you is to lose your house, do you still want to pray for it? Yep. Absolutely. Trust 100%. Because if you, if you really believe Romans 8, that stuff's going to work out. It's going to work out long term, right? Yep. And when, when you look at money, if you pray for something, and the, the answer is, you're going to go through a temporary season where you do not have the resources that you want to have, do you trust God enough to be obedient in that season? And your obedience is at the top. It's paramount, right? Yep. Obedience is better than disobedience sacrifice. God, God was like, I don't care about your sacrifice. Stop doing this stuff. Stop doing these good things trying to buy your way into, you're paying off a, you're trying to pay off a debt of disobedience. I don't care about your sacrifice. I don't care about any of that. So people are like, oh, you know, I don't, I will not. They use the story of David. David says, I will not take something that and give it to the Lord that does not cost me. And if you're disobedient, God literally does not care what it costs you. Not even a little bit. You're serving, you're praying, none of it matters. It would be better for you to just stop doing all that stuff and go learn how to be obedient than to be doing all the right things. Is why some people are going to live the right way and they are not going to have entrance. And then you got people who lived in homosexuality, or lived in adultery, or lived in all of this stuff their entire lives, and they get heaven because the posture that you carry with God, and the repentance and the subservience you carry with God, is more important than any other thing that you have stored up in terms of like, I'm going to build my merit so that I can have access to to things. Back to money, uh, if, if you look at my relationship with God in that season where I was out of alignment and I was disobedient, um, what you find is you find specific beliefs about God that were planted by the enemy that I agreed with, and they started causing havoc. One of those things was that God does not provide for the little things. And so I remember me and me and Lindsay getting into arguments because she'd be like, let's pray about where we go on vacation. And I'd be like, God doesn't care about that. So I had this weird, perverted relationship with God where it's like, he cares about the big stuff, but he doesn't care about the little stuff. And restoring God's reputation around the economic sphere is realizing that like, God will, God will cause you to be financially abundant so that you can take vacations with your family, so that you can go fishing, so that you can do all these little things that matter to you. It's the little things, just as much as the big things, that God really cares about. One of the other lies that I agreed with is that the, the way that I avoid going back to poverty is I just store up so much money that I can never go back. Idolatry. This is Canaanite law 101. This is greed. And so if the, if the enemy cannot get you to like come off of it and go be broke and live in a homeless shelter, what he'll do is he'll see like, okay, well, the only way to prevent you from going backwards is to have so much money that it's impossible for you to go backwards. He's not after, the enemy doesn't actually care that much whether you're rich or poor. What the enemy cares is, what's your relationship with God? Do you believe that God can take care of you or not? And a magical thing happens when you believe that God can take care of you is the fear begins to go away. And fear is a blockage of resource into your life. Things that you do out of a position of fear will never work long term. But all of that said, I think the main thing that we have to tackle is that living life and living life to the full, we have to define what that looks like. And what it doesn't look like is having to beg and borrow and cheat and steal. It looks like having all of those is filled up and filled up to the full. And, uh, this is one of the big things that I think I'm called to talk about and to teach about. 100%. Yep. Very quiet today, Jake. I'm listening. You're, uh, you're definitely on one of those, uh, you're on a roll. I think what you're saying is exactly what needs to be said, okay? Because most people just won't talk about this. And pastors know they talk about it, they're going to get their, they immediately their heart posture and motive is going to get questioned right out the gate. Because people, a lot of people are seeing churches as the church is a get-rich-quick scheme for the church, not for the members. And then so they get mad at the pastor for asking for money. And that's how they see church. And then they are simultaneously frustrated with the prosperity gospel. So it becomes, and then we just totally miss the thing in the middle, which is exactly what the devil would want more than anything. Is how do we get people to believe that God wants every single person to be like, you're going to be healthy, wealthy, if you transactionalize the kingdom. Yeah. Which is not what the Bible says. Bible also doesn't say it's good for you to be poor and impoverished. Yeah. It's, it's also not a prosperity gospel thing because prosperity gospel is built, built upon the foundation of transaction. Correct. God's currency is not transaction. God's currency is trust. Yep. This is why I say like, God doesn't respond to your need. He responds to your faith. 'Cause your faith is a byproduct of your trust. And, uh, the prosperity gospel movement got off kilter because it became like a give to get thing. And God's not giving to get. He's giving to give. U. And if we're made in God's image, we have to, we have to model that. And one of the best ways, if you want to be able to give more money, you sort of do have to have a little bit of money to give. And if we're made in God's image, God's not poor. Yeah. So a lot of, a lot of Christians will be like, do you believe you're made in God's image? Of course. 100%. Why don't you act like it? Why does your life not reflect that? Why do you, why do you not, like, in no way, shape, or form, could anyone tell that you have dominion over any part of your life? Yep. Or you have dominion in this, and this, and this, but you have complete, you know, endangered servitude in this area. Y. And that's not how the, the, the, that's not how the kingdom of God works. It doesn't work that way. So yeah, especially when God's given you a calling that makes you money, but you squander the calling, and then you say it's because you're a Christian that you're not making the money. Yeah. That's because then, because then it excuses you from responsibility. I think everyone should be rich. I think you have an, I think everyone has an obligation to again, get the knowledge necessary. Because it's not like you can just be like, in most cases, um, I think in most cases, it's very rare for God to be like, hey, you're supposed to do this, and then everything is just like magically dumped into your life. That's typically abnormal. What, what's more normal in most cases is, um, God calls a king, and that king has to learn how to fight. So you have to get, there's a, there's a verse in Psalms that says, God has made me strong as an ox. How we had to fight all the time. Yep. That's how he was made. God trains my hands for war. How? By going to war. Uh, we, you're equipped to become a great steward through the knowledge that you accrue over your life. It's, it's very important. It's a very important component. Because for us to be fully obedient, we're going to have to be well-trained and well-educated on these things, you know? Correct. So, yeah. Cool. 100%. Good stuff. What would you, uh, say to the audience to answer in the comments? What would be the, uh, question to answer that I want them to ask or I want them to answer? You want them to answer, if God owns everything, everything, how much of it do you think he wants you to have? Think about it. Good stuff. Love it. That'll be interesting. All right, love you guys. See you.