As believers in Christ, we can serve either God or mammon; the matter of money needs to be settled, we need to hand ourselves over to God so that our heart is enlarged, we are broad, and we see things the way God sees them.
As the Lord said in Matt. 6:24, we need to choose which master we serve: we cannot serve two masters, for we will either hate the one and love the other, or we will hold to one and despise the other. Oh, Lord!
What the Lord is after is not our money; God is rich enough, He has all the riches in the world and in the universe, but He is after us, our person. He doesn’t want our money; it’s not that God has a financial need.
He wants our very being. And the way to gain us is by gaining our heart; our heart is stuck to and worships money.
Whether we are poor or rich, whether we have everything we have or we are still in the process of accumulating things, we need to realize that God is the source of everything we have.
It is not because we work hard and God blesses our hard work that we have what we have.
It is God who is the source, and He takes care of us in His own way.
It may be that we work hard, do our best, and the money is still not enough; there may be many things that we desire to have and we think we need, but the Lord may not allow us to have.
It is so good in all these things to come back to the Lord, enjoy Him, fellowship with Him, and open up to Him in the matter of our finances.
It is good to have many conversations with the Lord regarding what we have, what we need, what we think we need, and what we would love to have.
Jesus really needs to become all the world to us, and especially when we think of earthly things, we need to invite Him in.
We may say that we are saved, but unless we’re saved from the love of money, we are not truly saved.
The Lord Himself took the way of being voluntarily poor, not owning houses and wealth, and He told us that, if we want to follow Him, we need to sell all we have and give it to the poor, and then follow Him.
This matter of dealing with our wealth, getting rid of what we have in excess, and living in a frugal way, has been lost.
Especially with so many Christian preachers teaching the matter of prosperity, teaching that believers should be rich for God wants them to be rich, the word of God and the divine revelation has been spoiled and misunderstood.
May we return to the Lord’s revelation in His word; may we come back to what the Lord tells us in His word, and may we say Amen to His speaking, especially in the matter of dealing with money and wealth.
When we Serve God and Deal with Mammon, we are Enlarged and become a Broad Person for God to Flow through us as His Stewards
We may think we may need more of this and more of that, or that we need a better job to get more things that we need for the house, or even to give more to the Lord.
But we need to realize that mammon stands in opposition to God, and every child of God has to overcome the power of mammon.
No one can do this for you, and no one can force you to deal with mammon, but when we do it, we are enlarged in our hearts to serve God and allow Him to flow through us.
The power of mammon is not shown in how much we possess; we may have a lot of things and may be wealthy, but mammon may have no power over us, or we may be poor yet mammon has a strong grip on us.
The power of mammon may be stronger on the poor than on the rich.
We need to realize that we have a choice: we have Christ in our spirit, and we can serve Him in purity and with an enlarged heart, or we serve mammon even as the rest do.
We may have a job and receive a certain sum of money, and we may offer up our money to the Lord; when we give Him all we have, He will take care of us, and when we receive it back from the Lord, the money will be very different.
We believers in Christ are not owners of money or wealth; we are merely stewards.
God has entrusted us with certain things, certain amounts of money, and certain riches, and He wants us to be faithful stewards.
How are we faithful to God in the things that He has entrusted us?
On one hand, He has entrusted us with the truth, the riches in His word, the saints, and the church; these are all God’s possessions, His treasure, and we need to be faithful and prudent stewards to take care of the people of God and the truth of God.
But God has also entrusted us with certain material things, with money, and with certain riches physically; we need to be faithful as stewards before the Lord in what He has entrusted us.
Our heart needs to be enlarged when we see the needs, and we should not waste our master’s money.
If we do this, if we waste the Lord’s money which He has entrusted us, some may aptly accuse us before the Lord (Luke 16:1).
May we realize that, as believers in Christ, no matter what our standard of living is, we need to do our best to be frugal, for we are stewards of God’s riches, His possessions.
If we look around us, everyone has a different opinion and feeling on how to deal with money and what to do with what they have.
But in the church life we see that God has a need – He needs us, His people, to cooperate with Him for His purpose.
We may think, however, that even though we need to get a property for the building of the meeting hall, we shouldn’t get a property that is too big and build a meeting hall that is too large.
This shows that we don’t take God’s mind as our mind.
May the matter of mammon be settled in our being; may we deal with mammon so that our heart would be enlarged, and may we serve God as slaves, being faithful stewards in what He has entrusted us.
If we are not faithful in what the Lord has entrusted us with, if we don’t manage what He has given to us in a wise way by being one with Him and living in a frugal way, we may be entangled by money, and we may not be able to serve the Lord in a pure and enlarged way.
Oh, may our heart be enlarged!
May God’s view concerning dealing with material things and riches become our way of seeing this, and may we be one with Him in being faithful stewards over what He has given to us!
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You with all we are and all we have. Enlarge our heart, Lord, so that we may be a broad person who is a faithful steward over the things that You have entrusted us. We acknowledge, dear Lord, that all we have is from You, and that we’re just stewards who want to be faithful to You. We want to deal with mammon in a thorough way so that we may serve You with an enlarged heart, having Your view of how things should be done. Amen, Lord, save us from being entangled by money. Save us from having the world’s point of view in dealing with material possessions. We love You, dear Lord, and we choose to serve You, not mammon!
As Priests of God, we need to Hand Ourselves over to God and Live for God
![But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ. But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count [them] as refuse that I may gain Christ And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God [and] based on faith. Phil. 3:7-9](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/But-what-things-were-gains-to-me-these-I-have-counted-as-loss-on-account-of-Christ-1-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ. But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count [them] as refuse that I may gain Christ And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God [and] based on faith. Phil. 3:7-9")
What God is after is not first what we have but we ourselves, our very person. He doesn’t want our possessions, properties, or money; He wants us.
Christ didn’t die for what we have; He didn’t die to redeem our physical possessions but us, the person.
God loves us, He cares for us, and He wants to gain us; however, many times we’re so entangled with material things and the love of mammon, that the Lord has to compete with these things.
We need to realize that we are priests to God, those who live for God in this world. We do not live for what this world has to offer; we’re not here to have a career, to gain more things and accumulate wealth under the cloak of “glorifying God” as we do this.
We are here to hand ourselves over to God and live for God as priests of God.
Therefore, we need to deal with mammon in this light.
If we don’t hand ourselves over to God, if we don’t consecrate all we have to Him and just allow Him to decide all things regarding our possessions and money, He has no way to use us.
We need to have the practice of contacting the Lord and hading ourselves with all we have to Him.
Once He gains our person, He also gains what we have.
This is why we need to be real priests to God, those who contact the Lord every day in spirit to gain Him as our real riches, enjoy Him as our real treasure, and be filled with Him as our real blessing.
Our eyes need to be lifted up from what we see or what we can gain on this earth so that we may see the surpassing worth of Jesus, His supreme preciousness.
When we see Him, we cannot but love Him and give ourselves to Him.
But if we are only moved or touched after we hear a message on material possessions or reading the Bible on this matter, and we give the Lord some money, this doesn’t amount to much.
Money is not the main problem; it is our person. He wants to gain us, the person.
Satan wants to usurp us by deceiving us into thinking that we need more and more, and he deceives us into thinking that we should desire to get this and that, accumulate this and that.
But the Lord wants us, the person, for He wants to give Himself to us; the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit is the real blessing, the real riches, and when we taste Him, when we have a glimpse of what He is, we will consider all other things as refuse on His account.
When we have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, money and the love of money fades away.
May we be real priests to God who spend time with God, hand ourselves over to God, and live for God (Phil. 3:7-9).
May it be our lifestyle, our daily living, that we contact the Lord about everything, whether we have things or not have things, whether we have money or not, and just hand ourselves over to Him.
When He gains us, the person, He has a way to move in a free way in us and through us.
But if money bottles us up, if we allow the “cork” of the love of money to “bottle up” the flow of life, we will not even be able to live a proper human life.
May we open our eyes and see the Lord; when we see Him, when we realize His preciousness, we will simply hand ourselves over to Him, realizing that it is a privilege to live to Him and for Him in this world.
Dear Lord Jesus, unveil us to see Your supreme preciousness, Your utmost worth, and Your sweetness. Become to us more precious day by day as we come to You to enjoy You and spend time with You. Oh Lord, we love You! We willingly hand ourselves over to You for Your purpose. We give ourselves to You with all we are and all we have. We do not live on this earth for ourselves; we are here for You and for Your purpose. We no longer want to be constrained and limited by the usurpation of mammon. We just want to gain You, behold You, and see You face to face. You are the most precious One!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, and portions from, The Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, vol. 2, ch. 54, pp. 404-409, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Material offerings and the Lord’s Move Today, week 2, entitled, Principles of Material Offerings (2).
- Hymns on this topic:
– Tell me not of earthly pleasures, / Tempt me not with sordid gain; / Mock me not with earth’s illusions, / Vex me not with honors vain. / I am weaned from sinful idols; / I am henceforth not my own; / I have giv’n my heart to Jesus, / I belong to Him alone. / I am not my own, / I am not my own. / I belong to Jesus, / And I am not my own. (Hymns #452)
– Lord Jesus, I long in Thy presence to live, / From morning to evening my one world Thou art; / O let not my heart be contented or rest / When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part. (Hymns #389)
– Take time to behold Him, / The world rushes on; / Spend much time in secret / With Jesus alone. / By looking to Jesus / Like Him thou shalt be; / Thy friends, in thy conduct, / His likeness shall see. (Hymns #643)
