Author Archives: God's Favourite House
Cause & Effect
“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” Pr.3:9-10 [NIV]
John D Rockefeller, in his biography stated that, one of the secrets of his wealth is his “ten-ten-eighty” rule. And he explained the rule to be, he tithes the first ten percent of all his income. He pays himself with the second ten percent, then budgets the last eighty percent. Someone asked me to explain why the tithe is ten percent. And I said, I do not know why it is ten percent but I know that nine percent or five percent is not tithe.
Seed Principle
“Money that comes easily disappears quickly, but money that is gathered little by little will grow.” Pr. 13:11 [NCV, emphasis added].
If you do not have savings, you cannot invest and you will not be able to take opportunities when they come. If you do not have a savings even God cannot use you financially because you do not have leverage. God cannot demand a seed from you because you have eaten everything. God asked the children of Israel to give part of the gold they had collected from Egypt to build the temple. The people that had given theirs to the building of the golden calf had nothing to give. Read the rest of this entry
Put Aside
“The wise man saves for the future…” Pr. 21:20 [LB]
The third habit for financial freedom is Save For The Future. It is called the Principle of Investment. I am using the word ‘save’ loosely here. I know financial gurus say you cannot save money because the inflation rate is higher than the interest rate. I understand that but you must at least accumulate some money before you can invest it. I know of people that actually buy land with their money without going to the bank. And they are able to achieve this because they have Read the rest of this entry
Reactive And Proactive
“...Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it” Pr. 21:20 [GN]
God is saying, stop spending your money as quickly as you earn it; then you are wise. I know this is hard to take in, yet the truth is, if what will pull you out to financial freedom were easy, you would have already done it. When I first read this Scripture, it made me uncomfortable. But I had to let this truth work out greatness in me. I had to deliver myself from impulsive buying. You do not encounter the truth and brush it Read the rest of this entry
Budget!
“...Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it” Pr. 21:20 [GN]
Every advert is channeled at impulsive buying. Buy now, think later. Do not get me wrong; this is not a campaign against buying things. Everyone has legitimate needs which should be addressed but do not shop impulsively. I sent some phone credit to my wife as a good husband and she loaded it. Then the network multiplied what she loaded by four. And she was excited about the free talk time. I told her the network’s goal was to lure her. She did not agree with Read the rest of this entry
Up, Close & Personal
“Riches can disappear fast… so watch your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds.” Pr. 27:23-24 [LB, emphasis added].
I made up my mind a long time ago that if I do not have something, I do not need it! You might consider that a little hard but the truth with finances is that if you are not a little hard, you are going to go way down the drain. You need to draw the line at some point. I used to do a lot of marriage counseling and I discovered that in a lot of marriages, one party is kept in the dark in one of these four facts – What we Own…Owe…Earn…& Where it goes. Maybe one party Read the rest of this entry
Financial Control
“Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender” Prov.22:7
Statistics show that over fifty percent of marriages that end up in divorce had to do with money. And guess what? Christians are not immune. Over fifty percent of divorce cases have a financial twist to it. I pray that financial vagueness in every marriage will disappear and beginning from today you will have total financial clarity. To get the facts at any price, there are four facts that you must know about your finances or joint finances as a married couple. #1. Know what you own. #2. Know what you owe. #3. Know what you earn. #4. Know where it is going. Read the rest of this entry
Keep Good Records
“Riches can disappear fast… so watch your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds.” Pr. 27:23-24 [LB, emphasis added].
The second habit for financial freedom is Plan Your Spending. That is the Principle of Budgeting. So budget! Plan your spending. You must have set financial goals and stick to them. “Riches can disappear fast… so watch your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds.” Pr. 27:23-24 [LB, emphasis added]. In our times, flock and herds would be stocks, real estate, bonds, investments, and your accounts. How many accounts do you have and what is their current balance, can you tell? You are supposed to know. Watch your business closely and check the numbers always. The key is keep good record!
You cannot watch closely what do you not even have a clue about. Thank God for the bank notifications and all but that is not enough. If I check your cheque stubs and I cannot tell what each cheque leaf was used for then there is a problem. That is why cheque books come with stubs. Thank God for Internet banking and the insight it gives into our accounts. Know the state of your finances and keep good records so that no one will cheat you.
When we were starting off as a church, one of the very first things we did was engage a financial consulting firm to set up our financial processes. At that time it did not make sense cost wise. But the Bible says, “Get the facts at any price!” Pr. 23:23 [LB]. Why? You cannot get a report or tell a story if there are no records. At any point in time, if we need the story, the records are there and intact. If you do not start capturing the records, you cannot even talk about what story your numbers are telling you.
Move your focus from the cost of getting an accountant and fix it on the amount you could lose because your finances are in chaos. You will discover it is far more then paying a finance person. If you run any kind of business, even if you are a solopreneur [a freelancer] and your briefcase is your office, get a finance person on contract to come in and do your books. It will save you a ton of money and heartache to get clarity on your finances in the area of record keeping.
Thoughts: List your next steps to order your finances and set timelines to each one.
Prayer: Father, as I act in obedience to Your statues, I pray that You will bless my finances, in Jesus Name.
The Antidote
“Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter” Prov.6:6-8
The antidote for poverty is work! “But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber” Prov.6:9-11. Some people love sleep too much. The Bible says if you love sleep you are courting poverty. May you not have scarcity, in Jesus Name. The question God is asking you today is when will Read the rest of this entry
Honest Earning
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to people–no, we command them: Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living.” 2 Thes. 3:12.
From Solomon we can learn five habits for financial freedom. The key thing about these five habits is that you have to do them all. If you do one or even four of the habits, you still will not attain financial freedom. You have to do the five to be financially free. We call them habits because a habit is something that you do easily, something that is second nature to you. Some of us have begun to do some of these things but not all of them. Some of us do not even do any of them at all, which means you need to work at it in the initial stages, then over time, it will become a habit.
What I am about to teach you is how God’s Favourite House runs financially and in six years, God has done huge things with us financially. Yes, there is a place for favour but God is not prodigal. Two people can get the same pay at the end of the month but one has nothing to show for it. So it is not about the amount you make as you are going to learn. I hope you are hungry to learn these five habits and to grow.
The first habit for financial freedom is Earn An Honest Living. It is called the Principle of Work. The reason the finance of a lot people is cursed is because they have earned a dishonest living. And such finances quickly disappear because it does not attract God’s blessings. It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow. So if you engage in fraud to get money quick, you will discover that the money will not last. I am not cursing you because I believe that if you have walked along those paths, it does not define you. And beginning from today, you will change, in Jesus Name. You can earn an honest living. It is called the principle of work.
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to people–no, we command them: Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living”. There is a poem we learnt growing up that changed my life. If I had my way, every teenager will memorize it too. The poem translated means work is the antidote to poverty. If you want the poem in Yoruba and the English translation sent to you, please contact the church office by sending us your email address. Even the English version will change your life.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask for the grace to settle down, to work, and earn a living worthy of God’s blessings that make rich and add no sorrow, in Jesus Name.
