The Enemy’s Strategy Against Christian Finances
It is not by accident that the enemy has targeted Christians in the area of money and business. Think about it carefully. If a person who does not know Christ comes into wealth, where does that money go? But when a Christian comes into wealth – that money funds the kingdom of God. Crusades, billboards, outreaches, missions. The enemy knows this. And so he does what any good military strategist would do – he attacks the supply lines.
Here is what a supply line is and why it matters. In any military operation, the frontline soldiers – the ones doing the actual fighting – depend entirely on what is being sent to them from behind the lines. Food. Ammunition. Fuel. Medical supplies. Without a constant flow of these resources reaching the frontline, even the most skilled and courageous soldiers begin to weaken, slow down and eventually stop. They cannot fight on empty stomachs with no ammunition. Military strategists like Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan understood this well – cut off the supply lines and you do not even need to defeat the enemy in direct combat. You simply wait for them to grind to a halt. As the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu put it, “The line between disorder and order is logistics.” A powerful army on the frontline means nothing if what is feeding and fuelling that army is being cut off at the source. The enemy does not always attack you directly. Sometimes he attacks what sustains you. And that is exactly what he is doing to the body of Christ in the area of finances.
satan’s strategy is not always a frontal attack. Often he is more subtle than that. What can be clearly observed in the church is that He works to give Christians an unhealthy relationship with money. He makes them naive in this area. He blindsides them. And it has worked remarkably well. The result is that Christians who could be funding the kingdom of God in a significant way are instead living on survival mode, unable to make a meaningful dent in the world for Christ.
You want to rent out a stadium and hold a crusade? Or you need a building to meet in, to assemble together? That is not free. It costs money. You need to understand that to do things in this world, you need currency. The enemy understands this far better than most Christians do. And that is exactly the problem.
An Unhealthy Relationship with Money
There are Christians who are waiting for God to write out a check and place it on their laps. They call it faith. But beloved, that is not faith – that is unbelief. Why? Because it violates God’s word. The Apostle Paul was clear:
For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. – 2 Thessalonians 3:10
These brothers and sisters think they are doing something noble. They have been tricked. They are actually disobeying God’s command. And what is often observed in cases like this is that these Christians become burdens on other believers – those who can pay end up carrying those who will not work. Is that righteous? No, it is not. It is not righteous for a Christian to refuse to work, violate God’s principles, and then wait for a handout from another believer. This obviously does not apply to those that are being supported by the church in full-time ministry (1 Cor. 9 – for context). Those that are in full-time ministry are not receiving handouts but actually righteously deserve being supported for the kingdom work that they are doing. God expects this and it is a shame to the members of the church if they do not give material things – but they reap spiritual things from those that are in full-time ministry. This is the point that the Holy Spirit made through Paul in 1 Corinthians 9.
The enemy is using God’s word against Christians without them even realising it. He tricks them into being super-spiritual, which is not actually spiritual but a deception. And yes – it is possible to overspiritualise God. Did you know that God is a very practical God? If you do not work, you do not eat. That is very practical. If you do not sow seed in the ground, the rain cannot bless your crops and you will not have a harvest. That is very practical. God upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3) – and when you violate His word and His principles, it is a big deal. A very big deal. And you stand to lose the most because God will not violate His word – for He has magnified His word according to all His name (Psalm 138:2). And that is exactly what the enemy wants – for you to not prosper and suffer losses because of violating God’s divine principles and laws.
Look at the Apostle Paul. He had every right to take money from the church. He said it himself – “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain” (1 Cor. 9:9). Yet what did Paul do? He went and made tents so that he would not be a burden on the church. That is the pattern. That is the Christ-like way. The Lord Jesus Himself was a carpenter. It is not evil to work. It is not unspiritual to earn. Christians must repent of this unhealthy relationship with money. The enemy is using it against you – and it is costing the kingdom dearly.
You Cannot Benefit From the Blessed Rains of God if You Have Not Planted Your Crops First
God is a practical God. Consider this: how does a farmer expect a harvest if he has not planted crops? He cannot. And God’s blessed rains – as real as they are – cannot water what has not been sown. A farmer cannot expect crops to grow and a good harvest to come if he has not put anything in the ground. Yet that is exactly what many Christians are doing. And they think they are the exception because they are sons of God. It does not work like that. God is not partial. The Bible says so clearly in Matthew 5:45. When it rains, it rains on the wicked man’s house down the road and on the righteous man’s house up the road.
…that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. – Matthew 5:45
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. – Galatians 6:7
This is the simple principle of sowing and reaping. You do your part. You plant the crops. You work hard, honestly, righteously. And then God does His part – the blessed rains come. That is the partnership. That is how it works. Here is another portion of Scripture that shows this partnership with our Lord so clearly when it comes to our walk with Him.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. – Philippians 2:12-13
Two very important parts that should be read together. You work out – you do your part which is read your Bible, go to church, pray, run the race and fight the good fight of faith. Then God does His part by working in you to do what is impossible for man but possible for Him. To make you walk as Jesus walked – walk in victory and authority – in the power of the Holy Spirit. First you sowed unto the Spirit (your part) then you reaped eternal life (God’s part – Cf. Gal. 6:7). So what happens if you do not sow and do your part? Do not expect the blessing of the reaping. To expect the blessing of the reaping without sowing is foolish and quite frankly that is violating God’s divine laws and principles – Which He will not alter for you either (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:7).
What I will say about the blessed rains of God is this: when a Christian does partner with God in the right way – working hard, working righteously, working honestly – I believe those blessed rains carry an extra benefit. Because you are doing the things of the kingdom and for the kingdom, and God backs that. You are blessed. It is in His interest to bless you so that you prosper – and as you prosper, the kingdom expands on the earth – because God is using you to fund the things of the kingdom on the earth. It is in heaven’s interest to back what you will be doing for the kingdom of God. God protects and blesses His interests. Look at Abraham. He was not just rich – he was wealthy to a degree that is hard to comprehend. Look at Job. Also a man of great wealth. Look at Joseph. A man that everything to the glory of God – everything that he did was blessed and God prospered him, even to the point of setting him over all the land of Egypt to save the known world from a severe famine. God’s blessing did not land on nothing. These men worked, stewarded and built – and God’s blessing multiplied what they had already put in the ground.
Stop Asking God to “Bless Your Business”
“Oh Lord, bless my business.” Sound familiar? That prayer is so general, do you even know what you are asking for? Do you expect people to break down your gates wanting to buy your product just because you prayed a vague prayer? That is not how it works. There is nothing wrong with the prayer itself. But what are you actually asking God to do for you? It is a lazy prayer. We need to learn to pray more specific prayers. General prayers are a sign of apathy. Specific prayers mean that you mean business with God and you are serious about this journey with Him.
Imagine walking into a grocery store and you tell the owner, you want food. Ah… Duh. What food do you want? Be specific with your requests to God. This is a good principle to apply to your prayer list. If you ask God to bless your business, how will you know when the prayer is answered? You won’t. But if you ask God for divine strategy and He puts it in your heart soon after that prayer or communicates the idea to you somehow, you will know it is Him answering you and it is an item you can actually check off on your prayer list.
So a practical thing you can do and it will help you is when you ask God to bless your business. What does that look like? More clients, better cashflow, expansion… You see. We are not done. Then you need to sit down and think, What do I need to get achieve those things? Now you pray concerning that. Maybe you need to get better at sales to bring in more clients, and then you realise… Oh wait, you are not even marketing your business? So how will people get to know about you and your business.
Here is a powerful truth when it comes to business. There are people right now in your city that need exactly what you offer and are willing to pay for it – maybe even top dollar – but they do not know that you exist.
Your issue is not that God is withholding business from you. Your issue is marketing. Pray about this! Learn a few practical skills in this area or hire someone – more on this later in this article. Of course you cannot expect God to give the people in your city a dream that they must come to your business. You are not a good steward if you expect to reap when you have not sown. When you have sown, then watch how God multiplies your efforts – also more on this later.
Ask God for strategy. Ask for the blueprints that are in heaven. Can you imagine all the ideas that have not yet come to pass on this earth? Our God is the Creator – He is the originator of every idea that has ever existed. But if you are not seeking, you will not find. If you are not knocking, the door will not be opened. Ask not, and you have not (James 4:2). So ask. Ask specifically. Ask God to help you with clients. Ask for strategy in your specific area of expertise. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you business, to guide you, to show you. Another thing, when you are seeking and praying, you are more receptive to see the opportunities that He provides and the doors that He opens for you.
And then learn from others. There are consistent, hardworking people in business – even among those who do not know Christ – from whom you can observe good things. Consistency. Invoicing promptly, having systems in place. Always learning new skills. Empowering themselves, growing, adapting. You are not going to borrow their moral life. But eat the meat and spit out the bone. There are lessons worth learning.
I am speaking to the business owner here in particular but you can apply it in your workplace as well. Ask yourself, who would you rather hire:
- A faithful steward – Who works hard, takes initiative and responsibility. Is solution-driven. Does not moan or complain but makes a plan and gets the job done – not just done but done with a spirit of excellence. Everything that he does he commits to God in prayer. Everything that he touches grows and multiplies.
- An unfaithful steward – Does the bare minimums, does not take initiative. Finds many problems and very good at making excuses why things are not working or functioning as they ought to be. Complains and moans more than actually getting tasks done. One thing is for sure, it is definitely not his fault. Does not get the job done. Things decay and certainly do not grow under his hand. But at least at the end of the day he prays the prayer, “God bless this business”.
Why would God view this any different? He is looking for faithful stewards that will steward properly the things that He has given them. The faithful steward gets given more and is set over more things. The unfaithful steward gets fired – physically and spiritually (Matthew 25 – parable of the talents). You would fire him too, trust me. That unfaithful servant was deceived but he still had to give account to the Master who did appoint him. It did not go well for him – at all. In fact the Master – the Lord Jesus calls him an evil servant.
“Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ – Matthew 25:24-29
One More Thing
One more thing on this. If you do not have a business yet – send out your CV. Ask God for an idea. You may wake up one morning with something on your mind – do not dismiss it. Ideas become businesses. At the core of every honest business is a problem being solved – a real pain point that real people are willing to pay to have resolved. Which means when you build a business around solving a problem, you are actually serving people. That is a kingdom principle. You are meeting a need. You are helping someone. Keep that in mind when you feel like business is somehow not a spiritual matter.
Steward Faithfully What You Already Have
Let us go back to the the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. One servant received five talents. Another received two. Another received one. The servant with one talent buried it. And the Lord’s response? “You wicked and lazy servant” (Matt. 25:26). It may have been little compared to what the others received – but it was still apportioned by God. And what was done with it? It was buried.
Laziness is not tolerated in the kingdom of God. If you are a lazy Christian, you need to sincerely assess your heart in these things – because that may well be exactly why you are in the situation you are in. That is not condemnation. That is an invitation to repent. There was a time in my life where I needed to repent in this very area – not seeing business for as spiritual a matter as it truly is, and not handling what was already in hand with the seriousness it deserved.
Stop thinking about what you do not have. Stop the “if only” mentality. If only I had more capital. If only I had more time. If only things were different. Get out of that mindset entirely. Live in the present. What do you have right now? Steward that and steward it faithfully. Work with what God has already placed in your hands. Double down on it.
Business Is a Kingdom Principle
Here is something that needs to sink in. Business is a kingdom principle.
Very wealthy people – and I am not talking about those who got rich through corrupt deals and shady government contracts – but those who built real, honest businesses – became wealthy because they were serving people. They were solving problems. They were meeting genuine needs. That is a kingdom principle. Here are a few examples.
- A web designer – someone’s business is not visible online and they are losing potential clients and becoming irrelevant because they do not have an online presence, that is their pain point. The web designer builds them a website and solves their problem.
- A plumber – someone’s pipes are leaking and their home is at risk, that is their pain point. The plumber fixes the pipes or replaces them and solves their problem.
- An accountant – someone’s finances are a mess and they cannot sleep at night, that is their pain point. The accountant brings order to the chaos and solves their problem.
- A doctor – someone is in pain and does not know why, that is their pain point. The doctor diagnoses it and solves it.
You get the idea… In all of these cases we see a serving of people taking place – which is a kingdom work being done, whether it looks like it or not.
And consider this. The accumulation of wealth is also a test from God. What are you going to do with money when you have it? What are you going to do with your influence? That is a conversation for another day and another teaching. But know this – if your heart is truly captured by the Lord and you genuinely love Him, how will you miss it? He will direct you. He will direct your hands. He will show you where that money should go.
Right now, while many Christians are living on survival mode, other billboards – some of them obscene – are going up everywhere. Some brothers are very wealthy, and out of their surplus they are able to put billboards up on the highway about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. How wonderful is it to drive past something like that? Now imagine if that were multiplied. Imagine driving down the highway and seeing Jesus billboards across the board – because Christians finally learned this lesson and came into the wealth that God intended for them to steward.
The sons of this age are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light (Luke 16:8). The Lord Jesus said it Himself. He pointed to the unrighteous steward and said – take note of that. Look at how cleverly he worked with money. Jesus said that not to endorse unrighteousness, but to point out a wisdom that the sons of this age operate in that the sons of light largely do not. That needs to change.
We are in this world but not of this world. We often emphasise the second half of that sentence – “not of this world.” But let us emphasise the first half for a moment. We are IN this world. And in this world, you cannot get anywhere substantially without money. So what are you going to do? Keep waiting for something to fall out of the sky? God does not work that way. Stop resisting the God-designed system that you are in. It is not an invention of Satan. Jesus Himself used monetary parables repeatedly – for a reason.
Work in Your Strengths – Pay Someone for the Rest
Know what you are good at and pour yourself into that. Are you gifted with writing? Write – blog articles, newspapers, whatever avenue is available to you. Are you good at building websites? Build websites. Are you a gifted artist? Create. God put you on this earth for a reason. We are all made in His image. We all carry a uniqueness and a God-given role. Find yours. Strengthen it. Double down on it.
And for the areas where you are weak – pay someone. You cannot do everything and you were never meant to. Here is a practical example. If it takes you triple the time to wash your car than it takes a professional car washer, pay the car washer. He wants the money. You want the time and the clean car. Everybody benefits. Pay the person who knows bookkeeping. Pay the person who knows taxes and accounting. Do not sit and try to do everything yourself thinking you are saving money. You are wasting time that could be invested in the thing you do well. Work on your strengths and get someone else to cover your weaknesses. That is wisdom, not laziness.
The goal is not to acquire wealth so you can drive a fast car. That is vanity. The goal is to earn well so that you can provide for others, bless others, empower others (employ staff). How wonderful would it be to leave a generous tip for someone who really needs it – a thousand rand, a five hundred dollar equivalent – because you are in a position to do so? How wonderful would it be to help someone, build someone up – not give them a handout mentality, but genuinely empower them? How wonderful would it be to scale your business so that you are providing for twenty, thirty, forty families? Abraham was wealthy – did he love money? No. He did not. And yet look at how many people depended on him and were provided for through him. That is the vision.
Just to revisit the matter of doubling down on your strengths. It is wisdom for the F35 fighter jet pilot to hone in on his ability to fly a jet and become the best pilot that he can be. Would it be wise for him to spend time improving his sailing skills? His time is limited. It is not his strength. And yet on the side, he is also working on his ability to drive a tank. We want the air force pilot in his jet, doing what he does best – flying that F35 with a level of mastery that only comes from many years of doubling down on one thing.
Our schooling system is partly to blame for this way of thinking. Work on your grades. Improve your weaknesses. What if we recognised strengths and weaknesses and made the children double-down on their strengths. He is not good at maths because he does not like it – it is not enjoyable for him – nothing clicks – and it is genuinely not his strength. So let us force him into extra classes and push him to improve. By some miracle, he will start to enjoy it – while we quietly neglect his actual strength, which is language and writing. It is okay for him to not be good at maths. He can pay someone to do his books in the future with all the wealth that he will accumulate from being a best-selling author. Now because of the neglect of his talents, his strengths – he still is not good at maths and he still needs an accountant to do his books and he is not a best-selling author. But at least he is working a 9-to-5 job, living on the bread-line, doing something he is moderately good at. But that is a conversation for another article.
The good news is, it is not too late, after reading this article, he might just have the inspiration and encouragement with the heart to now take responsibility to revisit that idea God placed in his heart – the one he buried. He digs it out, works it on the side alongside his 9-to-5, and who knows – in five years, you might be reading his New York Times bestseller.
Business Is a Spiritual Battleground
Do not make the mistake of thinking that because you are not standing behind a pulpit or podium in front of the church, what you are doing is not spiritual. Business is a spiritual battleground. Full stop.
Everything in your physical life has a spiritual reality behind it. Your relationships are spiritual. Your partnerships are spiritual. The word of God warns clearly against being unequally yoked – and that applies to business just as much as it applies to marriage. If you yoke yourself with someone you are unequally yoked with, the enemy is going to hit you there. Do not do it. Who you partner with in business is a spiritual decision. Treat it as one.
Pray over your business. Pray God’s protection over it. Remember what the enemy said to God concerning Job: “Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side?” (Job 1:10). There is a hedge available over your possessions, dear saints. The enemy himself acknowledged it. He could not touch Job’s possessions because God had put a hedge around them. Why would God put that hedge there if it meant nothing? Pray it. Claim it. Do not neglect it.
Do not think: I will pray about spiritual matters and treat business as something separate. Everything in your life is spiritual. Even though it is physical and may not appear spiritual on the surface – understand that everything is spiritual. You are a spiritual being living in a physical body. You are in this world – yes, physically. But you are not of this world – spiritually. You are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, representing that kingdom here on this physical earth. That means everything – including your business, your work, your finances – falls under that banner.
Live in the secret place. Not merely visiting it from time to time – but LIVING in the secret place. Beholding the face of God, beholding the face of Jesus. If your heart is set on the Lord and you are living in that place, how will you miss it? How will you miss the strategy? How will you miss the direction? How will you miss the blessing?
The Beauty About this Teaching and Understanding that You Now Have
Everything you have learned here can be applied to ministry. Which I believe is the point. You went to university, why? To serve God and serve His people. You learned a new language why? To serve God and to serve His people.
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians – powerful in speech and action (Acts 7:22). Was this a bad thing? Was it not God-ordained? Why? To serve God better – to serve God’s people better and to lead His people into the promised land – the land of Canaan. So get educated. Learn those needed skills and do everything with a spirit of excellence. In so doing, you glorify your Father and make His name great on this earth to the people who do not know Him or have a skewed perception or distorted image of Him. Imagine a CEO notices that his Christian staff outperform the others and thinks to himself, “Those Christians, as weird as they are about this faith thing and always talking about Jesus, are my best staff. I can trust them, rely on them – maybe there is something to this Jesus whom they serve – I am curious”. What a glory to the Father who is in heaven. See the physical and the spiritual intertwine here. You have heard the saying – I am paraphrasing the saying on purpose, “you and your living may be the only Bible that someone gets to read”. Meditate upon that for a second. If you did not know Christ, would you be attracted to this kingdom of God if you examined your own daily living and conduct as it is in the present (not to condemn you but to reflect and examine). Would your living now, convict your unbelieving hypothetical self that indeed Jesus is Lord? I will leave that there and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. – 2 Corinthians 3:2-3
We are all priests and our first call in this life is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength and serve Him as His priests. No Christian is exempt from this call and appointment.
He has made us a kingdom of priests.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. – 1 Peter 2:9
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. – Revelation 1:5-6
Pray often. Seek God for strategy. Work hard. Sow generously. Steward faithfully. And watch the blessed rains of God water what you have planted.
Glory to God!
