The Lord Over Finances – Why You Don’t Need to Worry About Finances When Working With the King of Ki
As Christians, do we realise that we are the children of a King who holds the world in His hands? Things that look so big to us are nowhere near as big as our God. This is true for the path He calls us to walk on, the sacrifices we might make, the money we hold in our hands and more! All these things are tiny compared to our God! However, regarding finances, all too often we tend to look at what we can do by how much money we have, not by how big our God is. That said, we cannot follow God in order to get money. It doesn’t work like that at all. God calls us to lay down our rights, take up our cross and follow Him. Following Him is NOT easy, but He provides ALL the resources we need in order to do what He has called us to do. Often, He asks us to give generously. We need to love Him more than we love money. We need to follow His call whether or not we think we have enough resources to do it. Sometimes we might find ourselves in a situation where we are being called to give all we have in order to help someone else. When we truly give our lives to Him and love Him above all else – including money – and when we end up in a situation where only He can provide for us, He DOES provide. He provides all we need and more.
In 2015, our family was in Australia for both of my brothers’ weddings. Just the plane tickets to get to Australia were a provision from God. However, there is a lot more to the story. We felt God was calling us to attend YWAM Together, a global YWAM event that was being held in Townsville. We’d need to fly up North to get to the event, back down South for my younger brother’s wedding, and then back up to go home to Thailand. Nevertheless, we knew God wanted us at YWAM Together, and we knew that although it would be expensive and tiring, He knows the plans He has for us and they are good plans. So, we obeyed.
We started raising money for the YWAM conference, and when the first lot came in my priority was to first buy plane tickets to Townsville. However, God’s priorities aren’t always the same as ours, and obedience is KEY to seeing Him provide. God said to pay the conference fees first. “What?!” I responded (I respond like this a lot!). “No plane is going to let us on for free and no hotel will let us stay for free, but YWAM will still let us enter if we don’t have enough money for the conference fees – they’ll just take up an offering!” Because the YWAM global family is so giving, the conference fees were at the bottom of my priority list. Of course I was going to pay them, but not until I was sure we had enough for return plane tickets and accommodation. God remained patient with me as He said once again to pay the conference fees first. I paid the fees and the first lot of funds that had come in for the conference was gone.
We were planning to visit friends in my hometown before going further North to Townsville. God had provided a place for us to stay there and we arrived to a fridge full of food. Minutes after I told God that we needed eggs, a friend knocked on the door with a carton of eggs. Another friend had lent us a car, and almost every night we had people inviting us over to eat with them. God’s provision was mind blowing. However, there was an accident and we broke the microwave at the place we were staying. As I said before, obedience is key to seeing Him provide, and so is being faithful in the small things. Some more money had come in for the conference, and although we knew that our friend would hate for us to replace her microwave, we knew it was the right thing to do. After buying a new microwave, we were once again left with very little. The conference was starting in a matter of days and we’d paid the conference fees and booked a hotel, but we had no money to fly there!
Long story short, God provided the money to buy one way tickets to Townsville. We got there and He provided for us all throughout the conference. We tried to save as much as we could, but there was a time when I wanted to buy western food and again within minutes God sent our leader to give us some food vouchers for the food stalls. Every day I looked at flights back down South, and every day they got more expensive. On the second last day of the conference, we still didn’t have enough money to buy plane tickets back. Finally, on the last day, the last lot of money came in – just enough to buy last-minute plane tickets. Although we’d raised money to attend YWAM Together, we never communicated the urgency of all these situations and so we knew the provision was God’s doing.
We learnt a lot at that YWAM conference, but we learnt even more from the process of getting there (and back). As I said in Part One of this blog, God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. When I first thought about going to the YWAM conference, I immediately dismissed it because I knew of the expenses involved. However, God kept on putting it on our hearts. Do you know what it means when God puts something on your heart but you are by no means able to make it happen? It means HE WILL DO IT. Not you – but HE will do it. Only He can do it. We do have a part and that’s the willingness to step out in faith and obedience – that’s our job, and the rest is His. As you read in Part One, when it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill. Money is nothing to Him. Just because we don’t have enough money in our hands, it doesn’t mean we don’t have enough money in the bank. God isn’t a bank or an ATM machine, but He IS the Creator of everything, our Father, and the King of Kings. He is full of ALL the resources that we need in order to do the task He has given us. But don’t forget that obedience and being faithful in the small things are key to seeing Him provide.
Next time something is on your heart, before dismissing it with the world’s wisdom which says we don’t have enough money to make it happen, ask God if He wants to make it happen. It just might have been HIM who put it on your heart! Don’t be controlled by money, but be led by the Creator of the Universe. Nothing is too big for Him. His plans for your future are good, and when you step out in obedience towards those plans, no matter how able you are to make it happen, He can make it happen.
