CHAPTER FOUR: Follow God’s Word about Money
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
AFTER I RECEIVED MY BREAKTHROUGH IN FAITH, which started in 2007 with God rescuing me from the dark and desperate place I was in because of my financial calamity, I was convinced that God’s way was the best way. So I pounded a stake in the ground of my heart. A stake that marked a commitment to believe God’s Word.
That didn’t mean I suddenly understood everything in the Scriptures, but the decision served as a road map for my life. From that moment forward, God’s Word would point me in the way I should go. If I had a question about something, I would go to His Word for the answers. If I needed direction, I would search His Word to discover the next steps. If I needed guidance, I would comb His Word for the path I should follow.
I’ve since come to depend on His Word to shape how I want to think, understand, believe, and behave. His Word, His Book, is the defining source and the dependable user’s guide for my life. I believe this is what Christians are called to do. And so as we prepare for the Daniel Fast and begin to think about money—what it means in our lives, how we can reduce the struggles we face because of it, and how we should use it—we need to start with a commitment to God’s Word and His Kingdom.
A THREEFOLD CORD
God created our minds to see in pictures. When you hear the word dog, you don’t see the letters d-o-g. Instead, you see an image of a dog with your mind’s eye. If you hear adjectives—“big dog” or “big black dog”—the picture in your mind changes to that description.
I believe God created this powerful tool of imagination to help us gain understanding in a deeper and more useful way. He teaches us His truths by painting word pictures for us in Scripture. For example, consider this one: “A threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). When I read that truth, I picture a rope made up of three tightly wound strands. The rope is strong, durable, useful, and effective for the purpose for which it’s to be used.
I like the picture of the threefold cord, and I use it to think about how to make good and useful decisions for my life.
The first strand of the cord is God. I want to make sure He is at the very center of all I do.
When we think about what we need for our lives, Jesus gives us very clear instructions: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). We need to prioritize God and His Kingdom above all else.
Jesus also instructs us to build our lives on God’s Word: “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25).
So the first strand in the threefold cord is God and His Word. He is always faithful and always wants the very best for us, and His Word is always sure, communicating with us the way we should follow Him.
The second strand of the cord is made of good, sound, and proven principles that are consistent with the Word of God. As we think about our financial matters, we want to make sure our systems, plans, and perspectives are aligned with God’s ways. We choose to spend and invest in things that are in harmony with His truths, and we learn to think about and manage money in a way that pleases Him. For example, we wouldn’t want to engage in a “get rich quick” scheme or invest our money in companies that bring harm to people or any other part of God’s creation.
Your second strand may be the advice you follow from an esteemed financial planner. You may choose to follow a money management system developed by an expert or develop an investment strategy designed for you by a godly adviser. You want to make sure that any practices you use for stewardship and management of your finances are sound and can stand with the first strand: God.
The third strand that helps us make good decisions is us. God calls us to put our trust in Him and to work according to His ways. He also calls us to perform faithfully—to do what we know we should do. When we operate in this way, we can be assured that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” We want to make sure we’re not an inactive strand. We need all three to work in harmony to realize the results we want.
Imagine this: You have God on your side wanting the best for you. You select a great money management plan and system that’s in line with godly principles. And then you rarely use the tools! You continue to overspend. Your stack of unopened bills remains in a pile, and your stress continues to soar. That’s being the weak strand.
Develop your third strand by setting up a consistent practice to plan your work and work your plan. Be a strong member of the threefold strand that is not quickly broken.
During your Daniel Fast, you’ll want to use your threefold strand as you strive to make wise decisions about money. Learn from God’s Word. Use good tools and systems. And then make sure you actively shift from taking a worldly approach to your finances to depending on God and His truths.
MONEY VS. FAITH
You don’t need to read much of the Bible to know that the Scriptures teach a lot about finances, going all the way back to Genesis and stretching all the way to Revelation. Money is a means of exchange. It’s a blessing from the Lord. And our relationship with money is a measure of our faith.
One of the many references to this fact is found in Mark 10:17-22, when Jesus meets with a man we call “the rich young ruler.”
Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
This story is packed with valuable truths you and I can learn for our own lives. The obvious point is that the rich young ruler chose his great possessions over the inheritance of eternal life. Jesus could see into the young man’s heart, and He pointed out that the man lacked one thing. It all centered on his relationship with money.
So often, we read this passage and don’t relate because we don’t consider ourselves rich. Consequently, the valuable lesson goes unlearned. However, we can go deeper as we see into the heart of what Jesus was trying to reveal.
For now, let’s consider a stark question: Do you trust God to take care of you?
If you’re feeling a little squeamish right now, don’t worry. First, you’re like most people—particularly in our society. So much emphasis is placed on what we own. What we drive. What we wear. What kind of house we live in. In our culture, people are valued by what they have and how they look rather than by who they are. And when that’s what we value, we start to trust in those things instead of in God. My hope is that you will gain a new perspective about this kind of thinking as you explore God’s truth during your Daniel Fast.
Second, your nervousness about this issue is also what Jesus’ disciples felt when they witnessed the encounter. They saw the rich young ruler walk away from Jesus because he had more trust in money than he did in God. And when Jesus spoke to His followers, He was clear about what was at the heart of the young man’s lack of faith.
Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
If you are now wrestling with this issue, please don’t think that you are not saved. Let’s be clear: Your salvation doesn’t depend on your relationship with money. Scripture says that our salvation rests on our relationship with Christ. But in your heart of hearts, you may know that right now, in your present state of mind, you depend more on money and financial security than you do on God.
I know. I’ve been there, and I had to confront this issue for myself. However, I was still God’s child. I still had eternal life. What I didn’t have was the kind of understanding or faith that allowed me to live fully in the Kingdom of God. I didn’t know that heaven and the Kingdom of God are two different things. Let me share more.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Do you remember what Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God? Ponder what our Lord told the Pharisees:
Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
The Kingdom of God is within you. It’s a new way of thinking. A new way of believing. The Kingdom of God is different from the worldly kingdom that is under the authority of Satan.
Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
When you have trusted in Christ, the Kingdom of God is in your heart. It serves as an inner influence. It is your faith and your trust. But the rich young ruler put his trust in money and therefore didn’t trust in the Kingdom of God. He chose the values of the world over the values of an entirely different way of thinking and believing. Let’s learn more about the Kingdom of God.
Early in Jesus’ ministry, He traveled to Galilee. Carefully read the words used in this passage:
Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Let’s examine the phrase that Jesus came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” The word “gospel” literally means “good spell” or “good story.” We often think of the gospel as being the Good News that Jesus brought to the world. When we think about the millennia from the time Adam sinned to when Jesus began His ministry on the earth, we can better understand the magnitude of the Good News that He shared with the Jews.
Because of Adam, all humans were made sinners, meaning that we all entered into this world with a “dead” spirit that had previously been connected with the Spirit of God in an intimate way. Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, and on that day his spirit died (see Genesis 2:16-17). Then Jesus came to the earth and paid the price for anyone who believes to be restored into a right relationship with God:
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
That truly is good news! The way this world thinks and acts no longer has to determine the way we think and act. We are not under Satan’s authority, and we are not part of his worldly system or restrictions. We are different! Profoundly different when we understand more fully that we’re now members of God’s Kingdom. Jesus is the King. We are citizens in His Kingdom. And He wants God’s “on earth as it is in heaven” reality for every one of His residents. This is where we want to gain greater understanding of our lives as Christians. And this is where a deep and intense change can happen in you as you meditate and even wrestle with these truths.
Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” He calls us to repent. Most Christians hear that word and think, Regret all that I’ve done wrong before God. Admit that I’m a sinner. Ask for forgiveness so I can be redeemed. I don’t want to toss that response out. Surely, confession and forgiveness are a vital part of our faith. This is the truth, but there’s more to it.
The New Testament was written in Greek and then translated into many languages. When we go back to the original text, we find that for “repent,” the Greek word used is metanoeō, which essentially means “to think differently.” It is built from the word noeō, which means “to exercise the mind, to comprehend, to consider, perceive, and understand.”[1]
If we understand the word this way, we might hear Jesus’ message like this: “Think differently. Use your mind to gain a new understanding. The Kingdom of God is available to you right now. Believe in this good news, and it will lead to a new way of living your everyday life.”
Jesus invites us to believe differently than the world does—because His Kingdom is different. It is not of this world. In John 17 Jesus underscores this point as he prays to the Father before His betrayal by Judas and arrest in Gethsemane.
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
I’ll share more about this truth later, but for now as we focus on the Kingdom of God, take a look at what Jesus told a crowd of people who wanted Him to remain with them so they could learn more from Him:
I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.
Jesus’ purpose was to preach the Kingdom of God, to teach a different way of thinking. Another realm exists beyond what we see and hear, and it’s called the Kingdom of God.
Look at this exchange between Pontius Pilate, governor of the Roman province of Judea, and Jesus when our Lord was on trial in the Praetorium, which was the court of Pilate.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Can you hear His voice? The ways of the Kingdom of God don’t make sense to the world. And if we’re part of the Kingdom, we have an open invitation to embrace its ways and access the benefits of our citizenship.
Can you receive the truths about the Kingdom of God? Can you perceive the mystery of our faith? Look at Jesus’ explanation for why He taught some lessons in parables:
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
“But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
The Kingdom of God is within. It is a mystery to those who don’t have the spiritual eyes to see or ears to hear. The Kingdom of God’s unseen reality for us is the way of life that followers of Christ can have when they are liberated from the bondage of the world.
When you accepted Jesus Christ into your heart, your spirit was born again. Notice the powerful truths Jesus taught Nicodemus about this in John 3:1-8.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Great is our faith. We who have been born again can see the Kingdom of God, and we believe differently from those who don’t yet know Jesus and are blind to His truths and His ways. We live according to the ways of God by what Paul calls a mystery:
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.
Our new understanding from our born-again spirit allows us to see and hear the mystery of our faith. Over and over again, Jesus taught lessons and then said, “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” He wasn’t talking about the ears you have on your head. He wasn’t talking about hearing audible sounds. He was talking about the ears of your spirit understanding His words and taking them to heart. You have eyes to see and ears to hear the mystery of God’s Kingdom and its truths that we can access for our daily lives.
We can hear the truths from God’s Word. We can hear from the Lord. We can hear Kingdom-of-God truths from the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Our part is to learn, listen, gain understanding, and grow in our faith.
This brings us back around to the story of the rich young ruler and the questions we must ask of ourselves about the relationship we have with money. Jesus said to His disciples, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:24-25). When we have money or possessions, our instinct will be to trust in them—and Jesus is clear that doing that makes it hard for us to trust what is really trustworthy: Him.
We can place our trust in money or we can place our trust in God. The choice is ours, and it’s a choice each one of us makes. Where do we find our security—in God or in our bank balance? Where do we find our hope—in God or in our retirement plan? Where do we place our trust—in God or in money? Hear again Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” God is calling us into His Kingdom. There we have free access to an entirely different way of life that’s rich in promises for our lives now and forever.
It’s so important to seek what God’s Word says about trusting money, and to embrace the truths of His Kingdom instead of the deceptions of the world. This is foundational as you prepare for your Daniel Fast for financial breakthrough. Over the following chapters, I’m going to open more of the Word so you can understand what it means to trust the Lord with and for your finances. For now, examine your heart. Think about how you feel about money. Ask yourself where you want to place your trust, for that is the destination you will travel to. Remember what happened to the rich young ruler: “But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:22). He chose to put his trust in his possessions, which led him away from Jesus. Choose instead to follow Jesus!
Faithful Servant Action Steps
- Do you acknowledge God and His Word as your final authority for your life? Take as much time as you need to consider your response. Unpack some of the doubts you may have. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead, direct, and teach you.
- Where do you place your trust—in money or in God? Don’t shake off a response that you wish you didn’t have. Instead, recognize it so you know where you are and so you can begin building trust in God.
- Have you made Christ the Lord of your life? If you answered yes, then you are His child and you’re going to heaven. Your next experience in faith is to begin to think differently so you can live today in the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. What are your thoughts about living in the Kingdom of God?