Dominion Voice
by Pastor Lanre Ajanaku
lanre.ajanaku@yahoo.com www.dominionvoice.com
A young lady approached me in Alberta Canada after an afternoon meeting to ask a question that stemmed out from a teaching I had taken earlier. She was confused and of the opinion that it was becoming increasing difficult for her to make ends meet, hence making saving impossible. These seem to be a universal question. Incidentally it is the same principle that answers this same question. Please note that a lizard in a poverty stricken nation remains a lizard and does not become a crocodile in a prosperous nation.
It is important to know that God is interested in our financial success. It may amuse you to know that 16 out of the 38 parables of Jesus are about money and about 2000 times the bible talks about money. With all these, is it possible for a Pastor or prophet to die poor or in debt? The answer is yes, it is possible. 2 Kings 4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditors is come to take unto him my two sons to be slaves. This prophet of God died in debt and creditors came to take the collateral for the loan- his two sons. But why should God allow such to happen?
This is because there are principles that govern financial success irrespective of who you are; otherwise the richest man on earth should have been a Pastor or one within the five-fold ministry. Yet financial success is highly predictable. Our action and habit can tell where we will belong in the divide. Financially poor people practice occasionally what the rich do habitually.
The starting point to financial success is setting financial goals. Without goals success is not achieved. Our goals and vision gives direction to our mission in life which is called life mission statement. The mission statement determines our purpose in life. This is clearly seen in our spending pattern and financial decisions. God promised to supply all our needs and not wants. Quite unfortunate, most Christians do not have wisdom to determine between wants and needs. Can you please draw up a list of your spending in the last three months and find out the direction of your life. The lady I spoke about at the opening suddenly realized that she was living in the wrong house. Her house rent was taking almost seventy percent of her monthly income.
This is aside from her upkeep, tithe, and bills. She was left with no other option than to look for a cheaper accommodation or get a housemate to share the payment or get addition source of income to stay afloat. Gen 2:10-14 revealed that the Garden of Eden was sustain by one source of river however divided into four parts. This connotes that God is our source however in a family, between husband and wife; they must have at least four streams of income to be sustained. Having a single stream of income is like one walking on a tight rope-suicidal. What if something goes wrong with that single stream, the garden dries up immediately.
Every child of God must have passive income to whatever active income earned. We can teach home lesson, sell suitable insurance products, make snacks to sell wherever crowd are gathered or in our church after service. Partnering with someone trusted to have additional income if our main job is time consuming. Many partnerships have failed but a good number have worked. There are many good people looking for people to work with, please look well and be flexible.
Haven set your vision, goals and mission, we need a plan. Our plan must be put into short, medium and long terms classification. All these must be written clearly on paper. Never get into a venture without thinking through it on paper. Hab 2:2 write the vision make it plain on the tablets, so he may run who reads it. Survey carried out sometime ago revealed that years after graduation, three percent of the 1953 graduating students from Yale University who had their goals written down had achieved more that the remaining ninety seven percent put together. Very instructive.
With these in place then we need strategy. A plan without a strategy is a wish. As often said if wishes were horses, beggars will ride. Stop wishful thinking and lay out a strategy to achieve set plan. A lot of us have good plans but lack the strategy. Wars are not won by the multitude of soldiers but by good strategy put in place. For strategy to be put in place, we must meditate in other words think deeply. God spoke to Joshua after the death of Moses to meditate to have good success Jos 1:8. Financial success is a product of strong meditation.
Studying, observe and putting into action. These three must be a constant routine. We have to review our income against your expenditure.
It is not rocket science to know if we constantly have an expenditure that exceed our income, we will always be broke, no matter the amount of prayers and fasting we do. A lot of churches and Christian do not have a spending pattern, we simply say as the Spirit leads. Yes, we must be led from time to time however it is pure foolishness not budgeting before getting into project. Remember what Jesus said about a man who desires to build without counting the cost. Such will become stressed and a laughing stock because he did not do due diligence.
Many Pastors have high blood Pressure and lost members because they have not learnt budgeting. They put long term vision to achieve in short term. Building project that is to be achieved in 7-10 years wants to be achieved in 2 years. Possibly because we want to make a statement. Many flocks have been lost to the world because of such pressures. Please let’s be wise. When we do our part then God gives the increase. Paul plants, Apollo waters but God gives the increase. This simply means we are adding corresponding actions to our faith. Shalom.
