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BIBLE-BASED FINANCIAL GUIDANCE, Part 13

by Jerry Dewey

     Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   Part 7   Part 8   Part 9   Part 10   Part 11   Part 12

          In Revelation 12:9-11 (Amplified) it says, “And the huge dragon was cast down and out--that age-old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, he who is the seducer (deceiver) of all humanity the world over; he was forced out and down to the earth, and his angels were flung out along with him.  Then I heard a strong (loud) voice in heaven, saying, Now it has come--the salvation and the power and the kingdom (the dominion, the reign) of our God, and the power (the sovereignty, the authority) of His Christ (the Messiah); for the accuser of our brethren, he who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night, has been cast out!  And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].”  Do you remember what Truth Number Seven was (explained in Part 2)?  God is looking for testimonies from those who were under the burden of financial problems and difficulties because they were not managing and handling the resources He provided according to His biblical principles and who are now free from financial problems and difficulties because they are doing what God expects.  Your testimony gives God the honor and glory He deserves, and you need to tell others.  When you tell others what God has done for you, your testimony imparts faith and encouragement into them.

            I’m sure somebody is wondering, “it’s appears Jerry can talk the talk, but does he walk the talk.”  A very legitimate thought, especially after you have read twelve life-altering articles on how to handle and manage your finances the way God expects you to.  I know if I had read these articles or was sitting in an audience listening to someone tell me how I should manage my finances, I would want to know if they were “practicing what they were preaching.”  I can assure you my wife and I manage and handle our finances exactly the way I wrote these articles.  Before I give you the details, here’s some background information so you will know where I am coming from:

                    Just so you know, I am not a professional financial advisor or counselor; however, I do have a degree in finance.   To me, financial management is a hobby, but I take it very seriously.  I have been tinkering around in the financial arena for almost 20 years, personally handling all aspects of our financial affairs (I keep my wife informed about where we are and how we are doing; any decisions that need to be made are discussed, then jointly made): monitoring our spending, developing our budget, paying our bills, taking care of our saving and investing programs, etcetera.  My goal, in writing these different articles, was to provide the biblical principles on how to properly manage and handle your finances so you could get your finances in line with God’s Word.

            When we started down this road in late 1995, our financial situation probably resembled what most of yours’ looks like: our tithing was probably at 10 percent, but I am sure it wasn’t biblically correct; our giving and savings were much closer to zero percent; and we were in debt way beyond our means.  At the time, I am sure we thought we were doing alright; but the truth is we were just barely getting by.  When we started, we did not have anywhere near the information I provided, so obviously, we were doing very few of these things.  It didn’t help that the church we were attending at the time didn’t provide any teaching on this subject, nor did any of the churches we had attended up to that point.  So, over the last thirteen years, we have added to our knowledge base by listening to teachings or reading books by various well-know Christian financial experts and leaders (some you may know and some you may not), such as, Brian Bohrer, Larry Burkett (founder of Crown Financial Ministries), Michael Chitwood, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Pastor Robert Lormis, Bishop Don Meares, Joyce Meyers, and Pastor Ray Popham (Called To All Nations Ministries).  Each time a new biblical truth was revealed, we incorporated it into our financial management program.  Also, whenever I see an interesting looking article on financial matters, I will read it, regardless of who wrote it; one can never have too much information about how to handle and manage your financial resources.

                    Therefore, the ideas and strategies I presented are not totally mine; some are.  We are currently using them exactly as they were presented; in the past, because we were learning along the way, we had to make changes and modifications to the way we were doing things so they were in agreement with God’s Word.  If you do all the biblical principles exactly as they were presented, your current financial situation will improve; however, I cannot guarantee you that you will obtain the same results that we have.  Likewise, if you pick and choose which principles, ideas, and strategies you want to do, I cannot guarantee you that you will obtain the same results that we have.  However, I can guarantee you this, whatever you decide to do, your current financial situation will not change overnight; it’s going to take time.

          Here are the details you have been anticipating:

                    Do we biblically tithe?  Yes; even though our paychecks aren’t deposited into our checking account until Thursday, on the Saturday prior to this, I know exactly how much our gross pay for those deposits are going to be, so I write our tithe check then (or the next day).  NOTE:  I use an Excel spreadsheet as our check register, which makes this a whole lot easier than using the paper register that comes with your checkbook.  I actually have the rest of this year’s deposits and bills already entered in; the amounts I have entered are the same as they have historically been, so after I get the actual amount for an entry, I simply change it.  Why do I tell you this?  I can, in essence, see into our financial future; therefore, I can take steps now that will help us avoid that dreadful feeling of “we don’t have enough money to cover all our bills” from suddenly popping up three-four months down the road.

                    Do we give (offerings and alms)?  Yes; we support our church, as well as missionaries and ministries outside our church.

                    Do we save?  Yes; we make regular contributions to our emergency fund and long-term nest egg program.  Even though we don’t have 6 months’ worth of net income saved in our emergency fund, we are fairly confident we could survive a short-term financial crisis short of both of us losing our job at the same time.  Both of us have accumulated paid vacation and sick days, approximately 28 percent of our monthly income is passive (it will always come in as long as we’re alive), and we have investments outside our “retirement supplement” investments we could fall back on.   Both of us have: a Roth IRA account into which we invest monthly so by the end of the year, we have invested the maximum amount plus the allowable catch-up amount; a “401k” account into which we invest every pay period – both of us receive our employer’s matching contribution of five percent and we are taking advantage of the deferred earnings provision by investing more than five percent.

                    Do we use a daily diary to keep track of the money coming in and going out?  Yes; as I mentioned in Part 9, I created an Excel spreadsheet that I use to enter any activity – every day of every month.

                    Do we have a budget?  Yes; our budget breakdown for this year is: tithe, 10.1652 percent; taxes, 17.1060 percent; housing, 16.3939 percent (of which, 13.4855 percent is for our mortgage and escrow); personal, 20.5805 percent (of which, 10.7585 percent is giving); medical, 2.4113 percent; food, 4.8264 percent; transportation, 4.6683 percent (of which, 3.3110 percent is for gas; no loans); clothing, 0.3079 percent; savings, 23.5405 percent; debt (credit card and other unsecured debt), 0.0000 percent (click here to view our budget pie).  NOTE: initially and for the first several years, it is highly unlikely your percentages will be the same as ours, so don’t be disappointed if they aren’t; ours weren’t.  However, feel free to use our percentages for your long-range goal. 

                             Through the first three quarters of this year, this is how we have done:

                                       If you are scratching your head, while looking at the total percentage for the second quarter, and thinking, “they lost control over their spending because they spent more than a dollar for every dollar they have earned,” remember the two goals I mentioned in the article on obtaining and maintaining control and discipline over your spending (Part 9).  I said your first goal should be to only spend a dollar for every dollar you earn.  Then, after reaching this goal, you should set a new goal of spending less than a dollar for every dollar you earn, putting that extra money in a “special occasion fund” that you could use whenever on whatever without effecting the normal disbursement of “your” money.

                                       That is exactly what we have done.  In the first quarter, we only spent a tad over 95 cents of every dollar we earned, so we had some money sitting in that “special occasion fund.”  And because we keep track of every penny we spend, there will be times when it looks like we are spending more than we have earned, which is what happened in the second quarter.  But, look at our spending in the third quarter and our 9-month average: in the third quarter, we spent a smidgen over 96 cents of every dollar we earned while through the first nine months of this year, we have only spent a tad more than 97 cents of every dollar we earned.  Therefore, we have approximately 2.8 cents of every dollar we have earned sitting in that “special occasion fund.”   That is the beauty of you getting your spending under control; then, when you get to the point where you are actually spending less than a dollar for every dollar you earn, you don’t have to “rob Peter to pay Paul” whenever a “special occasion” pops up.  In other words, we didn’t have to dip into our savings (emergency or long term), we didn’t have to make any adjustments to the normal distribution of “our” money, and we didn’t have to get a loan or incur debt just to buy the materials we needed for a major bathroom remodeling project (which explains the “greater than a dollar earned” spending in the second quarter).  We still have extra, unallocated money available to buy Christmas gifts for our parents, kids, and grandkids or anything else that may pop up without worrying about where the money is going to come from.

                                       Also, you have to take in consideration our savings percentages during this time frame compared to our budgeted savings percentage: in the first quarter, we saved over two percent more than we had budgeted for; in the second quarter, we saved almost four percent more than we had budgeted for; and in the third quarter, we saved over six percent more than we had budgeted for; as a result, through the first nine months of this year, we have saved over four percent more than we had budgeted for.  Even though we record the money we save as an expense, we haven’t really spent it – that money is out there in an interest bearing account working for us.

                                       NOTE: had I not carried the percentages for all the major areas out beyond a whole number, when added up, they would have shown that our spending was exactly 100 percent.  This is why I indicated that it’s a good idea to carry out your calculations to at least 3-4 decimals points; it will eliminate any chance of you getting false or erroneous feedback on your spending (in the major areas and overall).

                                       To that person out there who is saying, “Well, for someone who makes a lot of money, that’s easy to say,” let me assure you, it doesn’t matter how much money you make or how little money you make; the amount of money you make has nothing to do with it – it’s your stewardship of the resources God provides that has everything to do with it.  You could be making 600 thousand dollars a year, but if you are not managing and handling your finances according to God’s principles, chances are, you will have the same financial problems and difficulties as someone who makes twenty, forty, or sixty thousand dollars a year.  Besides, I never told you how much money we make, so what makes you think we make lots of money?  The only information I gave you was the percentages for each of the major areas we have broken our budget into.  Assign any dollar amount you want to use for the gross income, then, do the math and see for yourself.  The point is: why are you concerning yourself with something you know absolutely nothing about and allowing that to determine whether you can or should do this?  Has it worked doing it your way?  God’s way works!  What other proof do you need?  Would comparing lifestyles make any difference?  We don’t live extravagantly nor do we live modestly; I would say we live comfortably, doing whatever we want whenever we want, but we do it on less than 40 percent of our gross income (that is how much is left after deducting the percentages for tithes, giving, saving, and taxes; and just in case you were wondering, we are not penny pinchers, we are penny watchers).  Can you make the same claim?  How is this possible?  Matthew 6:33 is the key: when you put God first, the things of God and the things God expects you to do as one of His children, then all things are possible.

                    Do we create a financial statement?  Yes, quarterly.  In the thirty-three quarters that have passed since the beginning of 2000, our net worth has increased by 53.84 percent.  That is an average growth of 1.79 percent every quarter and 7.18 percent each year (in 2007, the world’s wealthiest individuals saw their wealth grow by 9.4 percent, according to the 2008 World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch and New York-based consulting firm, Capgemini).  Not bad considering the United States has gone through a recession, the negative impact caused by the events of September 11, 2001, and numerous corporate scandals (Enron, WorldCom [now MCI], Arthur Andersen, Adelphia Communications, just to name a few; for the complete list check out “The Corporate Scandal Sheet” on Forbes.com), and the current sluggish economy that has been bruised by housing, credit, and huge financial problems and the skyrocketing rise in oil, gas, and food prices (this doesn’t include the effects the flooding of major corn and wheat growing areas will have later on this year).

                             You are not going to see huge improvements in your net worth right away, but over time, the changes you make in the way you manage and handle “your” financial resources will add up.  After we started doing these things, I remember how excited I got when I saw the positive changes in our net worth, quarter after quarter.  This inspired me to look for ways to tweak the percentages so we could give more into God’s work and His kingdom and make our financial future more secure by increasing the size of our nest egg, while at the same time, decreasing the devourer’s share of our finances.  I can honestly tell you, I always get a good night’s sleep because I am never worried or concerned about where we are going to get the money to pay for that car insurance bill that is due, to pay for that unexpected huge car repair bill, or, as I mentioned earlier, to buy the materials we needed to complete a major bathroom remodeling project.  If it works for us, it will work for you.

                             To illustrate a point that was made in Part 7 about where you put your reserves: an important principle to keep in mind is, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”; in other words, spread your “set asides” across the spectrum of financial institutions and instruments.

                                      The stock market indices have seen HUGE losses through the first nine months of 2008.  The DOW has lost 18.1997 percent, the NASDAQ has lost 21.4891 percent, and the S&P 500 has lost 20.5672 percent; the combined average loss for these three major indices is 20.0853 percent.

                                                As a result, the net asset value (NAV) of the stock market-based financial instruments our retirement supplemental investments (IRA and 401K) and our non-retirement supplemental investments are invested in have suffered a combined average loss of 18.3270 percent; however, since we continued our investing strategy in these financial instruments, our realized loss was a combined average of only 17.5485 percent (the account value [NAV times the number of shares owned] on 12/31/2007 compared to the account value on 9/30/2008).

Fortunately, we heeded this advice and invested in “safer” financial instruments, which had a combined average gain of 38.0636 percent.  Therefore, our net value during this time period continued its positive movement, which is one of our goals; it grew by a respectable 1.58 percent, but the average growth, 0.53 percent, is not anywhere near the quarterly growth we were averaging at the end of 2007 (1.91 percent).

                                       Just to give you an idea of how volatile the stock market is, in the first thirteen trading days of the fourth quarter, the DOW lost 20.9457 percent, the NASDAQ lost 21.8025 percent, and the S&P 500 lost 22.1647 percent; the combined average loss for these three major indices is 21.6376 percent.

                                                The NAV of the stock market-based financial instruments our retirement supplemental investments and our non-retirement supplemental investments are invested in have suffered a combined average loss of 20.3893 percent.

                                                These losses are greater than the total losses these indices and our investments experienced in the first nine months!!!  Are we worried?  Absolutely not, because God is in control!!!!

          As I said in the beginning, the purpose of these articles was to give you some biblical principles and practical applications in the proper handling of your finances.  You could be tithing, you could be giving, you could be saving, and you could be budgeting, but there could be areas of your life and your finances that are out of covenant with God.  God can only move and bless you in the areas that are in covenant with Him.  It is not enough to know what God’s principles for your life and finances are; God expects you, as His child, to line up with all of His principles.  You have to follow and practice those principles to get your life and finances under the covenant covering of God.  God’s covenant desire for you is found in Deuteronomy 28:11-14; “and the Lord shall make thee plenteous in good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.  The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”  If you are trying or have tried everything you know and it is not working, chances are, what you are doing or have done does not line up with the Word of God.  God will only respond when you practice ALL of His principles.

          Most people don’t put God’s principles into practice for one of two reasons: ignorance or rebellion.  If you have read all these articles, you cannot say you are not practicing God’s principles due to ignorance.  Now that you have the knowledge, it is your responsibility to act upon it.  Be a doer, not a hearer only, as James 1:22-24 tells us, “But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”

          I encourage everyone to act upon this knowledge.  Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “Oh, I can’t do that”, or “I’m not sure this is for me”, or “I know people who don’t go to church and they seem to be doing pretty good; they’ve got a big, brand new house, they’ve got two or three new cars, they go places and do things, and I know they’re not practicing God’s principles.”  Been there, said that.  Years ago, when we would drive through different housing areas and see two-three new or expensive vehicles parked in the driveway of a brand new home (we knew it was brand new because we watched it being built), we would wonder how in the world these people could afford to live like that.  We knew we couldn’t afford to live like that.  You see, we were looking at this situation as the world sees things, through carnal eyes.  When you look at things through spiritual eyes, you are going to see a totally different picture.  Let me give you an example:

                        The Jews were enslaved in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.  They worked in the Egyptians’ gold and silver mines and their fields and on their construction projects, but they were never paid; near the end of their captivity, the Egyptians quit giving them the materials and supplies they needed to do the work and then, they increased their workload.  Meanwhile, the Egyptians were getting richer and richer and richer.  What did God tell Moses to tell the Israelites to do the day before they left?  Exodus 11:2 (NLT) tells us; it says, “Tell all the Israelite men and women to ask their Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver and gold.”  Then in Exodus 12:35-36 (NLT) they did as they were told; check out the results: “And the people of Israel did as Moses had instructed; they asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold.  The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth!”  Just like that, the Jews were rich!  And the Egyptians just gave it to them!!  God had stored all this wealth in the bank accounts of the Egyptians and when the Jews were ready, He gave it to them.

                             Just in case you are thinking it wasn’t a very significant amount, then why did the Egyptian army come after them (and make the fatal mistake of following them into the parted Red Sea)?  To get their huge, free slave labor force back?  No; they were going to kill them all and get all their stuff back (read Exodus 15:9, “The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.”)!!!

                             In addition, there were three previous occasions where God transferred wealth from the wicked and gave it to the just: in Genesis 12, Pharaoh gave Abram a bunch of stuff because he wanted to marry Sarai, but after he found out she was really Abram’s wife, he told them to leave and take the stuff with them (verse 20); in Genesis 26, Isaac stayed where God told him to, sowed his seeds as he was instructed, and in the same year, he harvested a 100-fold crop - it was such a huge harvest, it enabled him to obtain all the stuff of the Philistines (this was during a drought, so they weren’t able to grow anything; therefore, they had to barter with Isaac to get any much needed food); and finally, in Genesis 30-31, after working faithfully for Laban, who had deceived him and changed the terms of his contract numerous times, Jacob finally had enough and decided to leave (because God told him to leave), but he didn’t leave empty handed.  One of the things God caused to happen was making all the newborn cattle, sheep, goats, etcetera from Laban’s herd favor Jacob’s side of the deal; eventually, Jacob had it all and Laban had nothing.

          Remember what Truth Number One said: God owns it all.  He is storing it up in the bank accounts of the unrighteous to give to His sons and daughters when they are ready for it.  I don’t know how He is going to do it, but He IS going to do it, there is no question about that.  Come on Jerry, how can you make such an unbelievable statement?  Because it is in God’s word; I’m just repeating what I have read.  In Proverbs 13:22, the second part of that verse says, “and the wealth of the sinner [the wicked, the unrighteous] is laid up [stored up] for the just [for the righteous-those in right standing with God, for God’s sons and daughters].”  Jehovah God, in Isaiah 45:3 tells us, “And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”  In Psalms 37 (Amplified), there are several verses that say, even though the righteous don’t have it now, in the end they will get it ALL (verse 7, “Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him; fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass;” verses 9-11, “For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord [in the end] shall inherit the earth.  For yet a little while, and the evildoers will be no more; though you look with care where they used to be, they will not be found.  But the meek [in the end] shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace;” verse 13, “The Lord laughs at [the wicked], for He sees that their own day [of defeat] is coming;” verse 22, “For such as are blessed of God shall [in the end] inherit the earth, but they that are cursed of Him shall be cut off;” verse 29, “[Then] the [consistently] righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever;” and verse 34, “Wait for and expect the Lord and keep and heed His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; [in the end] when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.”  The only question that remains unanswered: are you going to do to what it takes to get your finances in line with God’s word so you can be one of the ones who become a beneficiary of this great transfer of wealth?  I don’t know about you, but we are doing everything we can to make sure we hear the words, “well done, thou good and faithful servants” and then, be given more authority and stewardship responsibilities.

          Folks, God is looking for people who are looking through spiritual eyes at the big picture; He’s looking for people who have an eternal perspective regarding their stewardship and they demonstrate this by their willingness, their commitment, their faithfulness, their consistency, and their eagerness to advance and enhance His kingdom.  Because God is watching how you manage and handle the resources He provides (Mark 12:41-44 “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.  And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.  And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”), when you get His attention, He is going to overwhelm you with His blessings because He knows that you are going to pass those blessings onto others.  Here’s what I believe: if Christians, after they have been shown how, would actively and properly manage their finances (get their tithing, giving, saving, and all the other areas of their finances in line with God’s Word), the world would see an unbelievable transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous.  This is why I encourage you to act upon this knowledge.  The sooner the better; even if you started tomorrow, it’s going to take time.  It may not take as long as it has taken us, because you have all the facts on the table now versus getting them a little bit at a time over the years.  But, if you never start, you will never get beyond your current financial situation.

          Way too many Christians are living paycheck to paycheck because their finances are biblically out of whack; they are suffering because of it and God’s work and His kingdom are suffering as well.  I put all of this together so you could help yourself become financially independent.  I would encourage you to seek God’s wisdom and guidance before you make any major chances in your financial affairs.  If you are uncomfortable with making major financial decisions on your own, you should talk to a professional financial advisor or counselor; however, their advice may not be biblical.  When you become financially independent, don’t forget to give God the glory He deserves.

            If you would like more information, click on the Contact link and send us an email; someone will contact you shortly thereafter.

     Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   Part 7   Part 8   Part 9   Part 10   Part 11   Part 12

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