9 “YOU LOOKED FOR MUCH, BUT INDEED IT CAME TO LITTLE; and when you brought it home, I BLEW IT AWAY. Why?” SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.
10 THEREFORE THE HEAVENS ABOVE YOU WITHHOLD THE DEW, AND THE EARTH WITHHOLDS ITS FRUIT.
11 FOR I CALLED FOR A DROUGHT ON THE LAND AND THE MOUNTAINS, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, AND ON ALL THE LABOUR OF YOUR HANDS.”
Haggai 1:9-11 (NKJV)
• In the order of things, priorities, and the order of spiritual principles; what you ought to give to God, money or whatever, should take precedence or consideration above any other thing you may want to do with the money in your hand.
- If you are a minister of God, and there is a need in the ministry work; a project to be done or whatever money to be spent, the ministry tithe or seed, which God has commanded you to sow to another Ministry, to the life of Someone, a minister, who is higher than you, takes precedence.
- In other words, seed sowing; giving of tithes and offerings, whichever type of offering; should be given a consideration above any other money to be spent—either for the ministry or the self.
- If you missed this order of doing things, or mismanaged the money which God has given or provided for you, you may experience a financial drought—both in your ministry and personal finances.
• A number of believers and ministers do not always take time to find out why things are not working financially, or why they are experiencing a drought in their finances.
- God would not condone or overlook any mismanagement of the resources provided for your Ministry. And also on your personal finances, especially the money meant or intended to be used for a particular purpose.
- You should be a good steward of God's resources, finances, because the mismanagement of any sort would be penalized.
THE sanction or penalty is always a drought in the personal or ministry finances!
• Fighting the devil when you are experiencing a financial drought may not bring any solution, rather, you should take an inventory of how you have spent every money God has provided for you.
- Have you spent those money as God intended and commanded you to do?Mismanagement of God's resources could lead to financial hardships.
- God will withdraw the supply, when there is a financial mismanagement in His work and in your personal finances—as a believer whom He loves (Haggai 1:9-11; Proverbs 3:11,12; Hebrews 12:5,6).
• Be circumspect and pay attention to it, that you may not suffer unnecessarily.
- Fighting the devil through prayer on the issue of money or finances may not be the issue and is not always the issue, when it comes to drought or hardship in finances.
- A wise believer who is experiencing a drought in his or her finances would do well to consider the area of mismanagement, that is, about the spending of the money which God has allowed to pass through their hands.
- The mismanagement in question does not necessarily mean you have spent the money extravagantly, as in, using the money that ought to be used for the Ministry work, for personal purpose.
- But it does mean when the money is spent or used contrary to God's order of things—His principles or priorities. WHEN the money is not spent as He intended and commanded, or instructed!
• The Self
Several years back, a couple used to sow a certain of amount of money to our Ministry, and God instructed me to be sowing the money up—to the Ministry of the person I was relating with as a mentor.
THERE was a month which the person brought the money, they used to sow it monthly; I thought we should quickly use the money to publish our teaching bulletin which we usually give out for outreach. In other words, the money was spent for the ministry work.
BUT God was not in agreement with what I did! There was a drought, a financial hardship afterwards, when the step was taken—our income, the ministry income was paralyzed.
- God said the instruction was, the money should always be sown as a seed, and should not be diverted and be used for any other purpose—even for the work of ministry.
• The truth is, in the order of financial principle in the Kingdom: Whatever is meant to be given as a tithe, an offering, or a seed commanded to be sown to another Ministry or Minister; should take precedence or priority above other things.
- Likewise in your personal finances, the tithes and offerings you are to give, or the seed you are to sow to a particular project or work, or to the life of a minister, or the work or ministry of such a minister, should take precedence—such Giving should be done first (1 Kings 17:13).
- If this order is not duly followed, you may suffer and experience drought, both in your personal finances and that of the Ministry or whatever you do for living.
• God is a disciplinarian!
- He is a perfectionist, who wants whatever you are instructed or commanded to do, be done or obeyed to the letter (1 Samuel 15:17-23).
- Giving to God; His work and His servants, takes priority or precedence. God's should be done first, before any other thing would be considered worthy of doing at all:
"And Elijah said to her [the widow at Zarephath], “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, BUT MAKE ME A SMALL CAKE FROM IT FIRST, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son" (1 Kings 17:13 NKJV).
• Note: If you have not been experiencing God's discipline or chastisement on your finances, when you defaulted in the area of financial commitments. Or when you mismanaged the money which was given to you that should be used for a particular purpose, or should be spent in a particular way:
(i) It could be that God knows you have not been taught on the subject, about Kingdom financial management; thus, He may not require much from you—to him much is given or taught, much would be required (Luke 12:48).
(ii) Also, it could be your relationship with God has not been cordial, deep or intimate, in that area of your spiritual life.
(a) He may still be considering you as a babe, an infant in spiritual things, that your understanding is still shallow, especially in the area of Giving—the aspect of financial commitments (1 Corinthians 3:1,3). That you are still carnal or fleshly when it comes to Giving, that is, financial commitment.
THUS, God may allow your shortcomings, condone your unfaithfulness and inconsistency in your commitments on it.
(b) HE also probably permitted the fledgling in the financial commitments of yours, because if He was harsh on you, you might give up completely. Thus, your unfaithfulness is condoned by Him.
(iii) It also could be you have not been faithful in financial commitments all along. Thus, He may not bother to increase the standard of what He expected from you in that area.
- It might not really mean you are a baby Christian, but it is just that when it comes to financial Giving, you are still immature, thus, God may not expect much from you and may not be severe in His discipline—when you are not faithful in it.
- I have seen ministers who are not faithful in tithings and other financial commitments. They are still immature when it comes to financial Giving.
• With the reasons mentioned above and some other ones, you may have not been experiencing a severe discipline when you are not faithful in your financial commitments—tithes, offerings, and the seed sowing in general.
- God may not bother you If you are yet mature in one particular area of your Christian life, but He would not relent in giving you the opportunities, making arrangements that would cause you to know more in that particular area of your Christian life. He would always allow you to be in the meetings where such a topic is taught.
- Note: This article you are reading could be one of the opportunities which God has arranged for you to learn about the subject of financial commitment—the principle of Giving in the Kingdom.
- Although, If your response to such opportunities and privileges to learn, are not availed by you, He may put you aside and allow you to learn it through the life experiences—and that may be hard and severe.
- But, If you, in your own case, have known the truth about financial principle of Giving, and you have been doing it; but afterwards defaulted or failed, God will discipline you severely on it.
- The discipline is always a financial drought or hardship:
26 FOR IF WE SIN WILLFULLY AFTER WE HAVE RECEIVED THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 BUT A CERTAIN FEARFUL EXPECTATION OF JUDGMENT, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26,27 NKJV).
• You will not fail in Jesus' name.
If you are being oppressed by the devil through one ailment or another, I declare your healing now in Jesus' name.
- Receive it now in the mighty name of Jesus.
Peace!