Faithfulness with Money
(week 21/07)
Olubi Johnson
Luke 16:8-18 (NIV): 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No servant 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.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. 18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Here, the Lord Jesus reveals to us that God wants us to be wise or shrewd with money and so prosper greatly financially: in fact we are to be wiser than the world in the use and management of money.
Proverbs 8:12, 17-21 (NIV): 12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. 17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.18 With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. 19 My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. 20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, 21 bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.
1 Kings 3:10-13 (NKJV): 10 The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. 13 And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.
1 Kings 4:29-31 (NKJV): 29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. 30 Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all men–than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations.
Luke 11:31 (NKJV): 31 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
Colossians 1:27 (NKJV): 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Our wisdom in Christ is greater than Solomon’s and just like in Solomon’s time he was wiser and richer than all the kings of the earth, it is the prophetic destiny of the Church that experiences and demonstrates the perfection and fullness of Christ in this 3rd.day to be wiser and richer than all other men on the earth!
However, for this to happen we have to be found faithful in our management of the little money we have now so that our love of God and others will always be greater than our love for self and thus money. If we are not faithful in the relatively (compared to what God wants to bless us with) little money we have now, God will never entrust to us the true riches: the deep wisdom of God, which will cause us to inherit great wealth.
Now, the love of money is really the love of self and thus it is the root of all evil:
1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV): 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
The common thought in this passage: Luke 16.1-18 is that a person who is not faithful with a relatively little amount of money will be unfaithful with the true riches (the wisdom of God and thus a great amount of money), in covenant relationships, in the kingdom of God: walking in perfection and fullness of Christ and also in marriage.
The connecting factor is faithfulness in a little amount of money: it will be a measure of how much you love self: above or below God and others. We are to love God above self and to love others as Christ loves them.
How then are we to be faithful in a little amount of money?
1.By faithfully, promptly and completely giving our tithes and offerings.
2. Praying and walking in the spirit to crucify the sin nature in the flesh that will want to make us love self above God and others.
3. Practicing and investing in honest ventures to cause our wealth to grow.
If we do this God will make us rulers over deep divine wisdom, great riches and so cause us to fulfill the fullness of our divine destiny in this 3rd. day!
