This was an interesting piece I wrote in May 2008.

I started writing this article at 11:00pm and finished it at about 4AM. Later that day I received a call from my friend informing me of a great Pastor's conference he attended. The conference was sharing how to live a simplier lifestyle and even your savings accounts to 401ks could be given away if the Lord so led you to do so. The Lord works in mysterious ways!!!

As we start this volume there is a term we need to talk about “CRISIS OF BELIEF“. This phrase was coined by Henry Blackaby and Claude King in their book, ‘Experiencing God‘. I had the opportunity to take this study about 15 years ago. If you have never taken this study I strongly recommend you do take this study in the near future. Oh yes, back to the point, the “Crisis of Belief - An encounter with God requires faith. Encounters with God are God-sized. What you do in response to God’s revelation (invitation) reveals what you believe about God. True faith requires action. When God speaks, your response requires faith. All through scripture when God revealed Himself, His purposes, and His ways, the response to Him required faith. God is interested in your walking with Him by faith.” Are you at a place in your walk that you have reached a ‘Crisis Of belief‘? I know I have.

When you reach this point you need to continue to pray. Then if you know the Lord has spoken, then by faith, I need to take action. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8 NIV). How are you going to prove to a skeptical world that your God is alive, unless you let God show Himself? This is accomplished by taking that step of walking by faith. We are placed here to honor and glorify our Lord. How can we do this if we only do as a fallen world and only use man’s methods? What glory do we bring to God by using the world’s methodology? We glorify God before men by letting God do the impossible. This way there is no question it was not I, but only God. So how are you going to respond during your next ‘Crisis Of Belief’?

The ‘Crisis Of Belief’ I am experiencing has brought me to this point. We are here to serve a risen Savior so if we truly believe in the Savior and he owns everything and he created everything what is the problem in doing what he wants us to do? Oh yeah, that carnal man thing, wants to do it his way, well the world’s way.

Take our various accounts like: savings account, investment account, retirement account, emergency savings, kids’ college savings fund, etc. could they be used for God’s purposes. Yes, I believe you are wise to have some or all of these types of accounts, but do we have the right to tell God, “Sorry these are not available for use”. I like these types of accounts because they give one security. But with this thinking we now position ourselves to rely on money instead of God for our future needs. Remember Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Look at these scriptures: Proverbs 21:20 “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.” Proverbs 6:6-8 “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” Or Proverbs 13:22 “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children.” But we need to make everything available to the Lord. If he requires you to give it away then you must be obedient. I am not saying everyone should give it, but just don’t hang onto it so tight that your faith is in the savings accounts. The first two verses talk about saving some items for future needs, but consider this; they didn’t say how long you should keep it. I do believe they kept it long enough until it was needed by them or someone in need. Please don’t cash in your accounts and foolishly spend it, this is not the point.

So the point is, if you have fully surrendered everything to the Lord, you are the manager, NOT THE OWNER. Then, when God request of His resources to be given, then we must obey. Never treat these accounts as sacred. A good illustration of holding back would be Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10). There are several applications from this story like not to lie, about being greedy and being deceitful to the Lord. Also, another application is about holding back a portion from God. I believe they didn’t give it all because they were scared about not having enough for their future needs and after all, they owned that property for many years the money is mine, they thought (my paraphrase). The first century church shared their resources to help those in need so in turn when they were in need the others could share with them.

I know our living expenses are rapidly increasing, but are we truly doing all that we can be doing for the Kingdom. Are we managing God’s resources well? Are there others in need or is your church fully funding their budget or are there other ministries that are worthy of your support? Remember; live by faith because we only get to do this life thing once. Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Remember it is about being a Kingdom Guard in God’s army. We serve and obey.

Till next time.