Divine Protection

Checkpoint

I pray that the spiritual truth we have been experiencing the past four weeks is transforming your thinking and renewing your mind. Each week, you may feel challenged in one area of your life or another, but you should also feel emboldened and empowered. This is exactly what the Word does—cuts our hearts based on whether its thoughts are or are not of God (Hebrews 4:12-13) then gives us power to overcome any and every thing opposed to Him and His will (Luke 10:18-19). This functioning of the word in our lives cannot occur without the simultaneous building of our faith. And as stated before, faith is the currency of the Kingdom. We will re-visit this idea when we talk about the concept of money as a currency and how it relates to wealth, but it is important to note that money, in itself, is not wealth.

As Christians, we all have had to demonstrate faith in Jesus Christ. Our first act of faith was confessing Him as our Lord and Savior. Many of you may have even faced situations where faith in God was all you had, yet it was enough for you to come out of your situation victoriously. This is the arena where God does His greatest work—when no one or nothing can deliver us but He alone. Many of us are in this situation with our personal finances. Let me encourage you by saying victory is yours. As victors over our finances, we must also learn to take the additional steps to accumulate wealth God’s ordained way as this is His will for us and vital for His Kingdom. We must also realize just how important this task is to our future generations. We are called at this specific time in history to be a cycle-breaking generation or what I call a “CBG”. It will not be through our own human efforts, however, but through the power of Jesus Christ working in us (I Samuel 2:9 and Ephesians 3:20). Access to this power comes by the Word.

Let’s review the steps we have taken so far in our journey to wealth accumulation by looking at what has been covered in the first four weeks.

• 1st step (WEEK ONE): Making the quality spiritual decision to break away from the world’s system and take rightful position as heirs of God’s promises
• 2nd step (WEEK TWO): Prioritizing the truth in our lives to loose invisible shackles and to start operating in the spiritual realm—particularly, concerning personal finances
• 3rd step (WEEK THREE): Learning about the greatness of God’s System/Kingdom and what our citizenship in it gives us rights to
• 4th step (WEEK FOUR): Understanding and learning to utilize the power of the seed

Now please understand that this blog is targeted to Christian believers who already know Jesus Christ and the free pardon of sin. Nevertheless, there is a chance you have come across this blog and are not saved. If so, I want to extend an invitation to you right now. The choice to follow Jesus Christ is the best choice you can ever make. Simply pray this prayer:

Prayer of Salvation

If you just prayed that prayer, we would be glad to celebrate your new life with you. Kindly, share your great news by sending an email to info@pwealthacc.org. Believe me when I say that your life will never be the same. Now, let’s continue with the truth of God’s Word.

Leaving the “gates” open on your finances

Last week, we made a call-to-action asking everyone to think of ways you can protect your seed. Protection of our seed is important because it is one of the keys to realizing our abundant harvests. Subsequently, an abundant harvest is one of the keys to being able to accumulate wealth. Properly used seed creates an abundant harvest, an abundant harvest leads to wealth accumulation, and accumulated wealth creates an inheritance for your future generations. This is just a very simplified, high-level overview of the master process of wealth accumulation, but it is a good “big picture” way to think about the task before you. For this reason, Satan tries to steal, kill, and/or destroy any manifestation of our God-given seed at any stage of the process he can. He does so, without ceasing, intending to prevent the harvest from ever coming into fruition. He will target the seed itself, the branch, the ground it grows in, the sowers who plant it, the harvesters who pick the fruit, the fruit itself, the inheritance, and the subsequent generation. He has been stealing seed from God’s people for many generations, but in the name of Jesus, we end his plot right now!

Need for protection (an illustration)

Think of your abundant harvest as a house you are starting to build and your seed as the building materials needed to get started. Now, think of Satan as a perpetrator who is always lurking around the neighborhood trying to steal your building materials before you can ever nail the first stud. Any time there is an opportunity to steal your materials, he takes it in order to stifle your progress. It is not that he wants the building material—he wants the neighborhood to himself. He already has a huge house down the street and is sickened by the thought of you having a house there that God has helped you build. To prevent his pernicious acts of stopping our progress, we must first build a protective wall at the onset of our project. That way, as we start to acquire our building supplies, he cannot get to them and we are able to successfully build our house over time. This wall will continue to serve its purpose of protection even after the house is built. It secures our endeavor at all stages while building yet the protection is on-going even after construction is complete. Stated more plainly, we need protection at every stage of building and beyond: acquiring the materials, storing the material, laying the foundation, erecting the walls, furnishing, and then our going out and coming in once complete. In context of our God-given seed, it is imperative that we have a means to not only protect the seed, but protect all stages of our seed. There are practical things we can and should do in the natural, but remember, the spiritual realm has supremacy over the natural realm. Thus, we need to take a spiritual approach to acquiring the protection needed. Only the LORD our God in heaven can provide the divine protection we need.

Consequences of no protection

With no divine protection, you are at the “mercy” of the world’s system. You may be asking, “How much mercy can I realistically expect from the world?” Well, considering the world’s system is under heavy Satanic influence and deception, you can expect the same amount of mercy Satan would give. Translation: the likelihood of receiving mercy from the world’s system as a child of God is slim to non-existent, at best. Why? Because friendship with the world is at enmity with God and vice-versa (James 4:4). When we decided to live for God, even though we were just learning to walk according to the ways of Jesus Christ, we were immediately out of favor with the world by default. As we mature in the faith over time, we grow more out of favor with the world, not less.

The world loves and protects its own. This is why without divine protection, you will often find yourself as the “odd man out” in dealings with the world’s system—especially as it concerns the financial realm. To get a clearer picture of what I am saying, let’s look at a very recent example. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Actwas signed by the president on March 27, 2020 in response to the effects of COVID-19 in our country. It included $2 trillion worth of relief funds and financial assistance to various groups in the country. I am a big numbers person, but in case you aren’t, that is a dollar figure with an incredible 12 zeroes behind it. The funds were much needed, particularly in certain sectors of the economy, so please don’t misunderstand the point I am about to make.

Thinking about this stimulus package in a rational and fair way, you would probably expect that the largest percentage of aid went to the hospitals and public health sectors to help support their brave efforts in fighting the pandemic. Nope, they actually received the smallest percentage—12 percent of the $2 trillion. Ok, well maybe the American taxpayers received the most. After all, we pay the greatest amount of taxes as a group in this country and this entire stimulus is funded by tax revenues. Nope, individual taxpayers received the second least—23 percent of the $2 trillion. “Well, who received the most” you ask? Large corporations received $500 billion which is 38 percent of the total $2 trillion stimulus package. The worst part is that they only pay 9 percent of the tax revenue which is funding the stimulus. The graphs below summarize these findings. Basically what it shows numerically is that large corporations, which pay the least amount of taxes, received most of the stimulus funds while individual taxpayers, who pay the most taxes, received the second least percentage of the stimulus funds. Please understand this is not a political blog to bash government. It is a blog assigned to provide spiritual truth and insight about God’s Kingdom compared to the world we, as Christians, live (always remember: “in this world, but not of this world”). The takeaway here is just as was initially stated—the world loves and protects its own, but so does God. As a Christian, your protection does not come from the world, but from God Almighty.

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Protection you didn’t know you had

I pay an annual subscription cost for anti-virus software which I have had for several years. Recently, an email was sent to me from my provider saying there were some services included with my subscription that I had not activated. Evidently, the company had restructured their services and bundled them in a way to be more marketable. Even though I was entitled to it, I was missing out on the extra protection by not knowing about the additional services. All it took was my calling and then the click of a few buttons to activate the services which I completed this past weekend. Now, I have a secure VPN, dark web monitoring, and 50 GB of cloud back-up. I was most excited about the VPN. A VPN is like having a a large protective wall around your navigation over the web.

Spiritually speaking, many believers are not activating their full protection when it comes to personal finances. We all know that the effective management of our finances requires money. Money in itself is not wealth, but it is a type of seed. Based on our discussion so far, we know that all of our seed is at risk without the proper protection. Think of a parallel example of our children who are also a type of seed. Without protection, our children, regardless of age, are at risk of Satanic forces at work in the world like human traffickers, child molesters and rapists, gangs, demonic influence of social media and TV, etc.. As a parent, you provide all the protection you can, but your efforts are limited to an extent. You need a greater form of spiritual protection working on your behalf. You may be entitled to a host of protection, but because you were unaware, you haven’t been using it. Knowledge of the divine protection you have through Jesus Christ as a Christian believer is critical. It is time to make sure you are using all of your protection and putting a wall around your finances and monetary seed through Tithing.

Tithing: fortifying the wall of your finances

Tithing is very important in our pursuits to accumulate wealth as it is the base of the protection of our monetary seed. The act of tithing is not so much about the money itself, but the spiritual act of obedience to God, the Father. The money does play an important role for the work of the ministry in the natural realm, but the obedience and faith exhibited as you consistently tithe has much more far-reaching spiritual ramifications. Some people faithfully pay tithes but may not fully understand why nor what effects it has on God’s Kingdom. Some people could pay tithes but choose not to because, again, they do not fully understand the effects their disobedience is having on them spiritually and naturally. Some people want to pay tithes, but because they struggle to make ends meet month to month, they feel like they cannot afford to do so. Finally, you have those who pay their tithes religiously. They know and understand well the impacts it has on their local church, community, the Church at large, and most importantly the Kingdom. Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, the following insights will be a blessing to you.

Stewardship vs. ownership

The tithe is not yours to keep or spend how you see fit. In reality, none of what we have is ours. We are simply stewards of whatever is in our possession. One hundred percent of what anyone has, believer or non-believer, is God’s (Psalm 24:1), but in His benevolence, He allows us to freely use 90 percent as we like. The other ten percent is expected to be used exclusively for His storehouse. For Christians, the storehouse should be your local church along with other places you receive the Word of God.

This is why the Bible says we rob God when we don’t bring our tithes and offering to His storehouse. When you take ownership of something you are really just supposed to be in stewardship over, you have shamelessly robbed the rightful owner of something they entrusted to you. In my opinion, this is worse than robbery because it includes the factor of having been originally trusted by the true owner. As a matter of fact, the Bible states that a steward being faithful is a requirement (I Corinthians 4:2). So imagine how the rightful owner feels when the steward is found to be untrustworthy. The world and unfortunately, many Christians, are unjustly taking ownership of things over which they are only supposed to be stewards. You cannot expect the owner, God, to keep protecting you from the perpetrator if you have stolen His possessions and claimed them for yourself. Fortunately, God is forgiving. Many of us have treated God this way because we lacked understanding. If this is you, make the choice today to start operating as a trusted steward not an untrustworthy one taking illegitimate ownership.

Blessing of the Firstfruit

In the natural realm, the tithe is ten percent of your income, but In the spiritual realm, the tithe is much more. It is a powerful act of obedience and faith in God with huge spiritual implications. It represents a firstfruit offering in our covenant relationship to God the Father. We see this same powerful act demonstrated throughout the Old Testament—particularly with Abraham (Genesis 14:20), Jacob (Genesis28:20-22), and ultimately the entire nation of Israel when it was established as part of the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 14:22-28). On a side note, this is why I enjoy studying the Old Testament. Despite the historical context being so long ago, we see so many powerful examples of God’s Word and His promises at work, further showing His unchanging characteristic as discussed in week 3.

In his story, Jacob had to rely greatly on the divine protection which the tithe brought him. Many of the things he had done through his own human efforts had put him at odds with those around him. Having his life threatened by his brother Esau after cunningly obtaining his birthright, Jacob heard and obeyed the voice of God to leave his home land and enter a new country. With nothing and no one else on which to rely, he made a covenant with God which was sealed with his tithe. God honored it. It was not the amount of the offering, but the obedience, faith, and reverence which were underlying the offering that delighted God.

So what makes the tithe offering so powerful spiritually for us believers? As a firstfruit, it qualifies us for the blessing of God promised in Proverbs 3:9-10 which reads:

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

– Proverbs 3:9-10

When you give the first portion of your increase to God, you sanctify the entirety of it as holy and belonging to God. Once it belongs to God, it receives His protection and Satan is not allowed to put his hands on it. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul explains this idea very simply (Romans 11:16):

16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

– Romans 11:16

These are very powerful spiritual truths that you have to internalize, so you can activate the protection over your finances. Then you can start to make progress in “building the house” that God will help you build. And when God builds a house, it stands forever.

God’s protection policy disclosures

With our home and auto insurance, we are periodically sent disclosures detailing what our policies cover. God’s divine protection over your monetary seed is disclosed in Malachi 3:10-12. The passage of scripture is shown below for convenience:

God’s Protection Policy (Malachi 3:10-12, KJV)

Open windows of heaven

The open windows of heaven indicate the divine favor of God on your finances which we are actually going to discuss in next week’s post as a continuation of Tithing. We see this divine favor demonstrated very powerfully in the Old Testament and it is likewise available to us today. Don’t miss next week’s post.

Rebuked devourer

God promises to rebuke the “devourer”, which is Satan, for our sakes and prevent him from destroying our harvest. This means God expressly disapproves of Satan trying to steal and destroy the manifestation of our seed, so the LORD Himself will stop him from doing it. When you have God blocking and preventing things from happening on your behalf, you have an assurance like no other.

Timeliness of your harvest

With Satan rebuked, your harvest is now able to grow and thrive. God promises that the growing season of your seed will be optimized in such a way that there is no waste and the fruit will be perfectly ripe. For your finances, this means you will not waste money and will have more of it to use towards things that prosper you as well as His Kingdom.

Blessed and delightsome land

The Blessing (with a capital ‘B’) is more powerful than anything the world has ever had and will ever have to offer. The Blessing is an unmistakable mark of divine favor on your life as a child of God which allows you to operate in His anointing in everything you put your hands to. Notice that the verse in Malachi says you shall, not just live in, but “be a delightsome land”. How awesome is that! Since these thoughts deal with the divine favorof God, we are going to also postpone this part of the discussion until next week too so stay tuned.

Summary

We discussed some powerful insights about Tithing and why it is important for activating the divine protection needed for our monetary seed and harvest as they relate to finances. Next week, we will continue discussion of the tithe when we explore divine favor.

Takeaways

• The Word of God separates the thoughts in our hearts between those that are and are not of God then gives us power to overcome any and every thing opposed to God and His will.
• The functioning of the word in our lives cannot occur without the simultaneous building of our faith and faith is the currency of the Kingdom.
• Money, in itself, is not wealth.
• God does His greatest work when no one or nothing can deliver us but He alone.
• Breaking of cycles for our generation will be through the power of Jesus Christ working in us which comes through the Word, not through human efforts.
• Properly used seed creates an abundant harvest, an abundant harvest leads to wealth accumulation, and accumulated wealth creates an inheritance for your future generations.
• Only the LORD our God can provide the divine protection we need.
• As a Christian, your protection does not come from the world, but from God Almighty.
• Knowledge of the divine protection you have through Jesus Christ as a Christian believer is critical.
• Tithing is a spiritual act of obedience to God with far-reaching spiritual ramifications.
• When you take ownership of something you are really just supposed to be in stewardship over, you have shamelessly robbed the rightful owner of something they entrusted to you.
• The tithe represents a firstfruit offering in our covenant relationship to God the Father.
• When you give the first portion of your increase to God, you sanctify the entirety of it as holy and belonging to God.
• God expressly disapproves of Satan trying to steal and destroy the manifestation of our seed, so the LORD Himself will stop him from doing it.

Calls-to-action

1. If you are not currently tithing, list out reasons you choose not to do so. Once your list is created, write next to it whether the reason is based on the a) Word of God, b) traditional beliefs, c) personal rationale/logic, or d) some other reason.
2. If you are tithing but feel like you have not “activated” your divine protection policy, copy the scriptures included in this post pertaining to God’s protection and start meditating on them and declaring them over your life and your finances.
3. In addition to tithing your income, think of other areas (i.e. time, talents, skills) that you can offer to God as firstfruits and set the entirety of it apart as holy unto God.
4. What are ways you can be a better steward of the areas God has entrusted to you (marriage, job, family, local church, etc.)?

As always, feel free to review previous blog posts and share with anyone you believe will be blessed by the spiritual truth contained therein. Coming very soon, the Spiritual Truths for Wealth Accumulation (ST4WA) blog will be migrating to a self-hosted platform where you will be able to subscribe to receive notifications when new posts are available. Please pray for a swift and seamless migration in alignment with God’s purpose for this ministry. God bless you!