Across the sands of time, God's people have walked His ancient paths. Join us as we explore divine identity and purpose on earth: God's word on wealth. Discover the blessing passed between family generations and find life filled with empowering relationships.
You will soar like never before. Welcome to Ancient Paths with Craig Hill. In our last broadcast, we were talking about not putting all your money in one jar, but putting it in several different jars.
I actually had physical jars, and you know, we actually used those when our children were small. I have two children; they're both adults, married now, and live in their own homes. But when they were little children living in my home, we actually had those physical jars, and I taught our children those principles—to put their money in jars.
The principle from Proverbs chapter 22, verse 6 actually does work: "Train up a child in the way he should go; when he is old, he will not depart from it. " My children have not departed from those ways, and they still keep their money in jars. God is able to multiply their money rather than them spending a hundred percent of their money in qualifying themselves to be poor.
Let me just give you that definition again: my definition of a poor person is a person who spends a hundred percent of their money. A rich person is a person who voluntarily limits his spending, lives in meekness, and has money available to tithe, give, save, and invest. He does so with an expectation of God's supernatural multiplication.
Now, there's one key that I talked about, or I began to allude to, in the last broadcast that most people don't know. Do you know that most people, the way they live, if they have money, they spend it; if they don't have money, they don't spend it? So, if we have money, we can get a new car, we can get a new boat, we can get this thing, that thing—most people just have a list.
Let me just ask you this: if you suddenly had an extra two thousand dollars per month, what would you do with it? You know, most people have a list: well, now I can buy a boat, now I could buy a new car, now I can buy this, now I could buy that. Here's my question: when my son was living with me—my youngest son—when he was still a child living at home, he loved snowboarding.
He was an avid snowboarder; he still is. Let me just give you an example. Suppose, while I was gone on a ministry trip overseas, my son, while he was a teenager living at home in my house, decided to spend three thousand dollars purchasing brand new snowboarding equipment—because he loves snowboarding—on my credit card.
When I came home and discovered that, what’s the problem? Suppose the theory that he used was this: "My father is very wealthy and he loves me; he would want me to have the very best, and that’s why I bought that. " What’s the problem with that?
I think most people would recognize pretty quickly that the problem is he didn’t ask. No permission, no authorization—he assumed I would want him to have that. Now, I wasn't dead; I was just on a ministry trip.
He doesn’t need to assume; he needs to ask me. You know, that brings up an interesting point right there. Because we, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we say we believe that Jesus is resurrected from the dead.
We say that we believe we are His sheep; we hear His voice, we have an interactive, dynamic relationship with Him. But, you know, I find that when it comes to money, very few people live as though that is true. As a matter of fact, there used to be wristbands that people wore with little letters on them: WWJD.
It meant "What Would Jesus Do? " I thought about that, and you know, I really don’t like that wristband. I would change it to something different.
Here’s the reason: Let me ask you this question. Is your grandfather alive, or is your great-grandfather alive? Let me ask you, for most people, we would say, "No, my great-grandfather is not alive.
" Suppose your great-grandfather is not living, and my great-grandfather is not living. Suppose we said, "Well, your great-grandfather was a very, very wise man in this situation; I’d like to access his wisdom. " I wonder what your great-grandfather would do.
Why do we have to say, "I wonder what he would do? " Because he’s not here; we can’t ask him. We have to assume and wonder what he would do.
Now, suppose you have a brother— I do have a brother; my brother is alive. He’s also a very wise man. Suppose I wanted to access his wisdom.
Would I have to say in a certain situation, "I wonder what my brother would do in this situation? " No, I could just call him up on a cell phone and say, "Dave, what do you think about this situation? What would you do?
" I can ask him. Why? Because he’s alive.
Do you know when you put that word "would," "What would Jesus do? " that implies He’s dead? That implies we can’t talk to Him; we have to assume what He would do.
I don’t think that’s right. I think we ought to change that wristband to WWID: "What Is Jesus Doing? " What is Jesus saying?
Why? Because we can ask Him; He’s not dead; He’s alive. We can interact with Him.
So, when it comes to money, the issue is this: Do you have authorization? For your spending, just like my son, it might be true that I love him; it might be true that I want him to have the very best; it might be true that I have plenty of money; and it might be true that I want him to use three thousand dollars to buy new snowboard equipment. The issue is, did he ask?
So, the issue regarding how you use money and your spending jars is this: Did you ask? Do you know from the Lord how you're supposed to use the money that you have? Do you know that I find most Christians haven't even asked?
It didn't even dawn on them. God gave me this money. Do you think He has an opinion on how I use it?
And the answer is yes, of course He has an opinion. So how do I choose how to use the money that I have available? How do I know what percentage to put into jars?
And then, when I have my spending jar, that's going to be all the money that I need for consumption, all the money that I need for my lifestyle. Do you know that most people have never answered a very important question in writing? That question is this: How much is enough?
Do you know that most people can't tell you what that number is per month—how much they need for their consumption, for their lifestyle? They live with what I call an open circle. Now, what's an open circle?
That means I've never answered in writing the question, "How much is enough? " So how much is enough? Well, more than I have right now.
If you live with an open circle, what happens if I give you more money? What will you do? Spend it on your lifestyle?
Because the circle is open. What's a closed circle? A closed circle is when I have made a budget, when I've answered in writing, "How much is enough?
" Now, if God brings increase, I understand that's not for the increase of my lifestyle; that's for kingdom purpose. I press that money into service to accomplish vision, to accomplish kingdom purpose, not to go buy more stuff. So when I have a closed circle, then God can be free to bring increase, and He knows that I will ask Him, "Father, what is this for?
What do you want me to do with this? " So it's really critical that you learn to close your circle. Now, I'm just going to give you a very brief explanation of how to do that.
There's a lot more detail in this CD series, "God's Power to Get Wealth. " I really encourage you to get hold of that because there's more detail on how to do this specifically in that. But here's what I suggest that you do: I would suggest that the first thing you do is keep track of your expenses for about three months.
Just write down what you spend. Now, keep track of all your expenses, your obligations, your needs, all the things you spend money on. After three months, I’d encourage you to keep them in some kind of a computer account, or if you don’t know how to function with a computer, you can do it with a hand ledger.
But just keep track of your expenses; find out what you're spending. Now, then I would encourage you to do this: Take each line item—what I spend for clothes, for food, for transportation, for education, for entertainment, for fuel for my car—every item. Go through that, and if you're married as a couple, pray together and ask God, "God, what would you like us to spend for that particular line item?
Are we spending the correct amount on housing, on food, on clothing? " You'll be shocked when you begin to interact with the Lord on that. Do you know why?
One lady came and told me, "I did what you said, and you know what happened? The Lord said, 'You've got 40 pairs of shoes in your closet. I want you to give away half of the shoes you have and cut your clothing budget in half.
You don't need to be spending that much on clothes. '" Another family came to me, and a couple told me that God spoke to the husband, "I'm tired of looking at you in those ratty old clothes. Would you please increase your clothing budget and go buy something that looks halfway decent?
" Now, this man didn't spend any money hardly on clothes, and the Lord instructed that family to increase their clothing budget. So you never know whether God will say increase it or decrease it, but I believe God has an opinion, and we need to ask Him. The issue is authorization: "God, am I spending the money that You've put in my hands the way that You want me to spend it?
" Can you look Jesus in the eye and, with a clear conscience, say, "Lord, I'm spending the money that You've placed in our hands as a family or in my hands as an individual the way that I believe You instructed me to spend it? " Do you know that many people, their theory is, "If I have it, I spend it"? I don't know how on earth you could ever look Jesus in the eye and say, "I spent the money that You put in my hands the way that I believe You wanted me to," with a clear conscience that way.
But that is—I call those people actually Christian atheists. Why? Because they proclaim themselves to be Christians, but they have no interactive experience with the Lord regarding how they use money.
They just use the money however they want to use it, and they don't bother to check with God. So, what should go in the. .
. Budget: three things—obligations, needs, and wants. People say, "Does God want it?
Is God willing to fund even wants, things that you don't need? " Of course, He does. Do you want to give your children things that they want but don't need?
Yes, but the issue is timing and authorization. God, do you want me to spend money you've put in my hand on that, or do you want me to do that later? Or maybe you don't want me to spend that at all.
Maybe somebody's going to give me that very thing, and I wasn't supposed to spend any money on it. So the issue is, "God, what do you want? What are you authorizing?
How do you want me to spend the money? " That's a critical issue. So I put together a budget.
Now, what happens if after I go through it, I go through all the lines and I add them up? What if there's more money available that I make every month, coming in as income, than the amount of my budget? Well, praise God!
You have an overflow. Now what do you do? You get to pray and ask God, "God, what do you want me to do with the overflow?
What do you want me to do with the money that's beyond our closed circle? " And God will show you what it's for. He may say, "Give it in offerings," to invest in your treasures in heaven account where it will multiply and return to you later in your life.
Or He may say, "Invest it in a project here on earth," or He may say, "Save it, and I'll tell you what to do with it later," or He may say many, many different things, but it's His prerogative to direct you how to use the overflow. Now, what if you have less money than your budget? What if your income is less than the budget, and you've prayed about it?
Then you go to the Lord and say, "Lord, I have a shortfall. I need a supernatural increase. So, God, I need you to supernaturally increase the income to match the amount that you told us we were to spend.
" And that's exactly what you do. And you know that when you apply for a grant from God, God will bring increase; God will release income to you. I've heard many, many testimonies of that happening for many, many people.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. " What are all these things? Well, those are desires; those are wants.
God will begin to add those things. Don't seek those things, but seek what God has given you. Pardon me; seek His righteousness, seek His kingdom.
Use what God has given you appropriately, and God will multiply; God will bring increase. But you know the critical key to this whole thing is authorization—receiving authorization from the Lord for how you spend the money that He's put in your hands. And now that's a critical lesson Jan and I learned many, many years ago—that we weren't free to just spend money however we wanted, because God had given that money and then trusted it to us, and He had an opinion on how we used it, even within our own consumption.
So we asked the Lord, "How do you want us to do that? " We review that every six months to a year because your situation changes as you go through stages of life. God will give you further instructions on how to utilize the resources that you have.
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You know, many years ago when I was in Africa, God gave me a vision of three different rivers, and on each river lived a family that had a totally different understanding of water. This was just a little parable of how people use and think about money. I just wanted to share this with you because it has to do also with this idea of closing the circle—determining how much is enough, and how do I use the money that's coming to me?
So here was an infinite, infinite snowfield. Have you ever wondered why it is that God has infinite resources, and yet it seems like most churches and ministries have very limited resources—more vision than resource, rather than more resource than vision? I think the reason is this: the connecting point is every one of us.
Every one of us is like a river; every one of us is like a pipeline that connects God's infinite supply with end users in the kingdom. The problem is this: many times the water gets stuck in the pipeline or gets stuck in the river. This was sort of the picture of these three rivers that God was giving me when I was in Africa once.
And the first river was this. . .
Along this family, pardon me, along this river live a family whose perception of water was this: there's just never quite enough water. No matter what you do, you don't get enough water. Their thought was, if we could just get more water to flow down the river, we'd be okay.
As a result of that, what they did was put a dam in the river and collected all the water at their house, so no water could flow downstream to anybody else. They saved all the water in a lake that accumulated at their house, and there was deep fear that one day there wouldn't be enough water, and even there wouldn't be enough water in the lake. So they stored everything they got.
Now, the second river was a family that had a totally different view of water. Their perception, understanding water, was: there's basically enough water for you, but there isn't enough for anybody else or anything else. So they didn't allow any of the water to pass by their house and go on down the river to help anybody else.
What they did was use a hundred percent of the water that came to their house. Any water that came down that river, they used all of it. Now, it's interesting when you think about those two families on those two rivers.
What would happen if somebody up in the snowfield decided to put more water down either of those rivers? If you put more water down the first river, what happens? It just makes the lake bigger and bigger and bigger.
If you put more water down the second river, do you know what that family finds? New uses for water. So if you put more water down that river, the next thing you know, they have built a fountain or several fountains around their property that use water.
And if you put more water, then they've built grass that puts a lawn in—a huge lawn—and they'll put sprinklers in to water their lawn. They've got water features all over their property. If you put more water, the next thing you know, they'll build a swimming pool on their property, and if more water comes down that river, then they'll build an entire water park for their children.
It doesn't matter how much water you put in that river; they'll use all of it. Now, over here on the third river is another family, and this family has a totally different perception of water. Their perception is, there is so much water coming down that river from that snowfield, you could never use it all.
So, do you know what that family does? They limit the amount of water they use; they just use what they need for their family and let all the rest of the water go down the river. And you know what?
Not only that, they realize that there are other families that don't live near a river. So they have actually engaged bulldozers to dig canals out to some other villages and some other families that don't live near the river, so that they can divert water out to help other families and other villages. Next year, they have a vision to dig three more canals out to other villages so that more water can get out to help other people.
The reason they do that is their perception is, there's so much water coming down the river, you could never use all of it, and there's an infinite snowfield up above. Now, if you were up in the snowfield determining how much water you would put in each river, what would you do? How much water would you put in the first river?
I know I'd probably just put enough to supply the needs of that family—no more. We don't need a huge lake; there’s just what they need to use. The second river, the same—I’d just put enough to supply the needs of that family, but we don’t need water parks and swimming pools and huge uses of water on that property.
And the third river, that's where I'd put most of the water. Why? Because it does the most good to help the most people.
Do you know that that little analogy, that picture that God gave me, I think that's exactly what God does? He does have an infinite snowfield. Now, the question, the issue is: which river do you live on?
Now, for most of us, you know what we all say? Well, I want to live on the third river. Well, of course, we all want to live on the third river, but the issue is not which river do you want to live on; the issue is which river do you live on.
The fact of the matter is, for most of us, we actually live on the first or the second river. How do you move from the first or second river to the third river? That's what we've been talking about in just the last broadcasts.
Do you know how you move to the third river? Stop drinking all the water. Stop consuming all the water.
What do you do? Close the circle. Answer the question: how much is enough?
Put the money in jars. What that means is, put the water into other places, not just your own consumption. Limit your consumption.
That's the first step to moving toward the third river, where you've got an abundance flowing down that river. So you put them—you begin to manage appropriately the Lord's tithe, the ten percent that doesn't even belong to you. It's not yours; it's just a qualification test to see if you know how to manage money that belongs to somebody else.
Put some money in the offering jar; put some money in a savings jar. the profits? The Pharisees.
This arrangement was completely unrighteous and exploitative, yet it was hidden from the masters. The steward who was praised by the rich man was actually shrewdly securing his future by forgiving a portion of the debts, thereby winning friends from those he had previously exploited. In essence, the unjust steward was acting out of self-preservation and cunning to ensure he would be taken care of after losing his position.
This situation challenges our understanding of righteousness, management, and the use of resources. It’s a call for us to reflect on how we handle what we’ve been entrusted with and to consider the moral implications of our financial dealings. In the end, the story of the unjust steward offers us a compelling lesson: it is essential to be wise and to steward our resources well, understanding that our actions impact others and our future.
Jesus underscores the importance of managing resources wisely, reminding us that we cannot serve two masters—God and money. Ultimately, it is our relationship with God and how we choose to manage what He has given us that will determine our success and fulfillment in life. That the Pharisees, now the masters, didn't know that this was going on clandestinely between the Pharisees and the stewards and the managers.
Now here's an interesting scenario: Jesus is teaching publicly. Guess who's in the audience? All these parties!
We've got masters, we've got some stewards, we've got some Pharisees, and guess what Jesus does? He says, "Just suppose. I mean, I'm sure nobody does this, but let's just suppose there was a master, and he found his manager to be unjust.
" This is what the manager was doing, and Jesus exposes this whole unrighteous scheme that's going on right in front of everybody. Can you imagine what the masters were thinking? "Wait a minute!
Is that what my manager is doing? Is he doing that? " Because the masters didn't know that, so Jesus exposes this whole scheme.
So here's what was going on: when the manager or the steward says to the first debtor, "How much do you owe my master? " In verse 5 and verse 6, he said, "A hundred measures of oil. " He said to him, "Take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50.
" Why did he say that? He was canceling the interest. The extra 50 was the part he was making, and a part of which the Pharisees were going to get.
So he canceled the interest and said, "If you just give me back the original amount, the 50 I lent you, I need it immediately because the master is going to find out that it's gone. Bring it back to the inventory. If you do that, I'll cancel the interest.
" And Jesus said, "By doing that, what this man has done is endeared himself to all these creditors and endeared himself by pardoning these debtors. " By canceling the interest, what he's actually done is side with the Spirit of God to break the power of the spirit of Mammon, to release people from interest, which is increasing fruits of righteousness. It's increasing fruits of unrighteousness by using excessive interest to charge people fifty percent, a hundred percent interest— that sort of thing, which is what these guys were doing.
The reason the master praised him is he said, "You're wise. Now he says because the sons of this age are more shrewd in their relation to their own kind than the sons of light. " Now, who are the sons of light?
These are the Pharisees; these are the people that should have been the ones that were the purveyors of light, should have been the ones that were creating light and releasing people from debt. But instead of doing that, they were using the law to oppress people, and Jesus is saying what actually is happening here is that the sons of this age, who are the stewards, are more shrewd than these other people, and they're actually breaking the power of the spirit of Mammon and releasing people from debt. Now that's a very interesting thing that I never understood until I understood this whole scenario of what was taking place—what they were doing.
So what Jesus is recommending is siding with the Spirit of God against usurious interest, against wrong use of inventory, and citing against the spirit of Mammon, which would use the law or use the oral tradition of the Pharisees to actually oppress people. And so Jesus is saying we don't want to do that; what we want to do is side with the Spirit of God against interest. So, powerful, powerful thing!
So just in conclusion, which river are you living on: first, second, or third? Have you closed the circle, and are you willing to move to the third river, voluntarily limiting your spending and putting your money in jars, and moving forward toward the third river instead of just the first or the second river? Now, in our next broadcast, I'm really excited to share with you a principle of how to release the supernatural.
Do you know you are not designed by God to live a natural life? You were designed by God to live a supernatural life, and God wants to release the supernatural in your life, and there's a key way to do that. So in our next broadcast, which will be both on television and on the internet, I want to share with you what God has shown me about how to move from living naturally in the financial realm to living supernaturally in the financial realm.
You can see that either on the internet at CraigHill. org or on television, so make sure to catch that broadcast. I don't want you to miss it!
God bless you! Again, be sure to get the Ancient Path to Wealth package, including Craig's book "5 Wealth Secrets: Ninety-Six Percent of Us Don't Know," and his eight-part CD series "God's Power to Get Wealth. " Both resources are yours for a gift of just forty-five dollars or more.
Call our product line now at 30-3797-1139 or simply order right here online at CraigHill. org. For those of you following Craig along this Ancient Path to Wealth series, the next broadcast is available for viewing online right here at CraigHill.
org. Thank you for watching today's episode of Ancient Paths with Craig Hill.
