[Excerpt from Prosperity Through Grace]
Since ALL blessings have been given in Christ in the New Testament through the finished work of Christ, our motivation and goals are no longer for this world or for mammon. We are told not to love the world or the things of the world for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). This means that we seek to live a sanctified life free of selfishness.
1. Living a daily sanctified life implies a letting go of any worldly motivation in our daily lives. Our motivation and methods are not like that of the world (Mark 10:42-43; Matthew 6:32; 1 John 4:14-17).
a. For the fulltime minister this means that one should not be doing the ministry for the sake of earthly gain (money or recognition). During the apostle Paul’s time, there were those who did the ministry work for the sake of selfish gain (Philippians 1:16). In our modern times, there are ministers like those that Paul described whose goal in the ministry is either money or recognition. Some of these will not go where the Spirit leads but only go where the dollar leads. Others would use every opportunity to promote themselves rather than to promote Christ and others before themselves.
All such behaviour is unsanctified and unholy in the sight of God, although the innocent sheep would still get ministered to, in spite of these imperfections; but these ministers have robbed themselves of eternal rewards by focusing on temporal rewards. In the Spiritual World, when a minister lowers his motivation to that of worldly gain, his entire spiritual vibration and light becomes more coarse and lower in quality. The extreme worldly ones radiate darkness around themselves; this means that their messages and lives while helping some are also causing many to be led into the realms of darkness in the Spiritual World.
What then should be the correct sanctified motivation for the minister? He should fulfil the ministry out of a pure love for God and a pure love for his congregation. He should love as Christ loves, willing to sacrifice for those he loves that they may grow and be nurtured under his care. I do believe in the principles of tithing and giving to ensure that a fulltime minister is properly supported but as far as the minister is concerned, with or without worldly gain or reward, he (or she) should seek to do his best to express his love for those under his care by giving his ministry free and without charge. This is the highest motivation and causes the spiritual light of the minister to grow bright and powerful in the Spiritual World.
b. For all Christians this means that whether you work or are in business for yourself, you do not work nor do business for the sake of worldly gain (money or recognition). Jesus told us to not be like the Gentiles (people of the world) (Mark 10:43; Matthew 6:32). We are told specifically not to love the world nor the things in the world (1 John 2:15). We do not serve mammon but rather serve Christ (Matthew 6:24).
Sanctified daily living means that when you go about your professional work life, you do it because you love to do what you are doing; with financial gain being incidental. If you are an architect, you love designing and creating things and work out of a pure love to do so; getting paid at the end of the day is only incidental to you. If you are an engineer, you love doing engineering stuff for the joy of doing those things. If you are a doctor, you love helping others get better with your skills. If you are a clerk or an assistant, you love being an assistant to help others achieve their goals. If you are a business person, you go about doing the business because you see it as a means to help and serve others in that particular area of meeting a need with goods or services; that would be the main eternal reward that you seek – of serving and helping others – with the temporal rewards as incidental.
While outwardly those of the world do the same jobs for the sake of money (they are serving mammon), the sanctified Christian goes about the same jobs for the joy of doing those jobs in themselves; the temporal rewards being incidental. For those who are afraid that they will lose out in the natural because they now focus on the daily eternal rewards, remember Jesus’ words that ALL these things shall be added to you because your eyes and motivation are always on the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
What happens when such a drastic motivational change occurs within all Christians? Firstly, they will begin to find the true place of joy and fulfilment that God wants them to be in. In this life, we are supposed to find our natural and spiritual gifting (everyone has both natural and spiritual gifting). It may take time for some of us to discover them and also even after discovering them we might require a period of training in them.
Search your heart, those things that God has placed in your heart would be those things that you desire to do; and your training and qualification for them (natural and spiritual) are merely to help you function in the natural and spiritual gifting within you. Once you discover your gifting, your motivation would then be to daily fulfil it for the joy of seeing your gifting become a blessing and avenue of joy to others. This should be the only reason why we work.
We should never, never work just for money (no matter how much you need it). It will sap your energy and joy; and in the end destroy you and your home and family. Mammon does not a good master make. Jesus is our only Saviour and Master. And He wants us to work out our daily lives by living for Him; which would be using all the natural talent and spiritual gifting He gave us to be an avenue of love and joy to others. This is what it means to do service as unto the Lord and not unto men (Ephesians 6:7).
See yourself as a creative being releasing creatively your gifting on a daily basis. Do not see yourself as a dutiful slave working just for the pay check at the end of the month. The difference between the two is like the difference between light and darkness. One is sanctified, the other is unholy. From the Spiritual World perspective, the difference in the light radiating from a person is great between the sanctified motivation and the unholy motivation (darkness surrounds the unholy motivation). Whatever you do in word or deed, do ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:17).
We should always live for eternity, and examine all temporal motivations and goals in the light of eternity. Our motivations are like anchors. When we anchor our motivations to those of God and eternity we are pulled upwards towards glory and light. When we anchor our motivations to this temporal world or on temporal things we are pulled downwards into realms of darkness. Jesus said that the devil is only mindful of the things of men and not of God (Matthew 16:23).
The temptations of Jesus by the devil are all in the temporal realm: satisfying his physical hunger, pride in showing off, kingdoms and riches of this world (Matthew 4:3-8). Where our treasure is, there will our heart also be; and if it is with mammon, then it is full of darkness (Matthew 6:21-24). We are spirit beings destined for eternity and should never lower our motivations to the realm of bread and butter. There should be no fear of the lack of material needs for Jesus promised to take care of us more than the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26-33).
Sanctified Living and Giving
Since ALL blessings have been given in Christ in the New Testament through the finished work of Christ, our motivation and goals are no longer for this world or for mammon. We are told not to love the world or the things of the world for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). This means that we seek to live a sanctified life free of selfishness.
1. Living a daily sanctified life implies a letting go of any worldly motivation in our daily lives. Our motivation and methods are not like that of the world (Mark 10:42-43; Matthew 6:32; 1 John 4:14-17).
a. For the fulltime minister this means that one should not be doing the ministry for the sake of earthly gain (money or recognition). During the apostle Paul’s time, there were those who did the ministry work for the sake of selfish gain (Philippians 1:16). In our modern times, there are ministers like those that Paul described whose goal in the ministry is either money or recognition. Some of these will not go where the Spirit leads but only go where the dollar leads. Others would use every opportunity to promote themselves rather than to promote Christ and others before themselves.
All such behaviour is unsanctified and unholy in the sight of God, although the innocent sheep would still get ministered to, in spite of these imperfections; but these ministers have robbed themselves of eternal rewards by focusing on temporal rewards. In the Spiritual World, when a minister lowers his motivation to that of worldly gain, his entire spiritual vibration and light becomes more coarse and lower in quality. The extreme worldly ones radiate darkness around themselves; this means that their messages and lives while helping some are also causing many to be led into the realms of darkness in the Spiritual World.
What then should be the correct sanctified motivation for the minister? He should fulfil the ministry out of a pure love for God and a pure love for his congregation. He should love as Christ loves, willing to sacrifice for those he loves that they may grow and be nurtured under his care. I do believe in the principles of tithing and giving to ensure that a fulltime minister is properly supported but as far as the minister is concerned, with or without worldly gain or reward, he (or she) should seek to do his best to express his love for those under his care by giving his ministry free and without charge. This is the highest motivation and causes the spiritual light of the minister to grow bright and powerful in the Spiritual World.
b. For all Christians this means that whether you work or are in business for yourself, you do not work nor do business for the sake of worldly gain (money or recognition). Jesus told us to not be like the Gentiles (people of the world) (Mark 10:43; Matthew 6:32). We are told specifically not to love the world nor the things in the world (1 John 2:15). We do not serve mammon but rather serve Christ (Matthew 6:24).
Sanctified daily living means that when you go about your professional work life, you do it because you love to do what you are doing; with financial gain being incidental. If you are an architect, you love designing and creating things and work out of a pure love to do so; getting paid at the end of the day is only incidental to you. If you are an engineer, you love doing engineering stuff for the joy of doing those things. If you are a doctor, you love helping others get better with your skills. If you are a clerk or an assistant, you love being an assistant to help others achieve their goals. If you are a business person, you go about doing the business because you see it as a means to help and serve others in that particular area of meeting a need with goods or services; that would be the main eternal reward that you seek – of serving and helping others – with the temporal rewards as incidental.
While outwardly those of the world do the same jobs for the sake of money (they are serving mammon), the sanctified Christian goes about the same jobs for the joy of doing those jobs in themselves; the temporal rewards being incidental. For those who are afraid that they will lose out in the natural because they now focus on the daily eternal rewards, remember Jesus’ words that ALL these things shall be added to you because your eyes and motivation are always on the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
Freedom from Mammon
What happens when such a drastic motivational change occurs within all Christians? Firstly, they will begin to find the true place of joy and fulfilment that God wants them to be in. In this life, we are supposed to find our natural and spiritual gifting (everyone has both natural and spiritual gifting). It may take time for some of us to discover them and also even after discovering them we might require a period of training in them.
Search your heart, those things that God has placed in your heart would be those things that you desire to do; and your training and qualification for them (natural and spiritual) are merely to help you function in the natural and spiritual gifting within you. Once you discover your gifting, your motivation would then be to daily fulfil it for the joy of seeing your gifting become a blessing and avenue of joy to others. This should be the only reason why we work.
We should never, never work just for money (no matter how much you need it). It will sap your energy and joy; and in the end destroy you and your home and family. Mammon does not a good master make. Jesus is our only Saviour and Master. And He wants us to work out our daily lives by living for Him; which would be using all the natural talent and spiritual gifting He gave us to be an avenue of love and joy to others. This is what it means to do service as unto the Lord and not unto men (Ephesians 6:7).
See yourself as a creative being releasing creatively your gifting on a daily basis. Do not see yourself as a dutiful slave working just for the pay check at the end of the month. The difference between the two is like the difference between light and darkness. One is sanctified, the other is unholy. From the Spiritual World perspective, the difference in the light radiating from a person is great between the sanctified motivation and the unholy motivation (darkness surrounds the unholy motivation). Whatever you do in word or deed, do ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:17).
We should always live for eternity, and examine all temporal motivations and goals in the light of eternity. Our motivations are like anchors. When we anchor our motivations to those of God and eternity we are pulled upwards towards glory and light. When we anchor our motivations to this temporal world or on temporal things we are pulled downwards into realms of darkness. Jesus said that the devil is only mindful of the things of men and not of God (Matthew 16:23).
The temptations of Jesus by the devil are all in the temporal realm: satisfying his physical hunger, pride in showing off, kingdoms and riches of this world (Matthew 4:3-8). Where our treasure is, there will our heart also be; and if it is with mammon, then it is full of darkness (Matthew 6:21-24). We are spirit beings destined for eternity and should never lower our motivations to the realm of bread and butter. There should be no fear of the lack of material needs for Jesus promised to take care of us more than the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26-33).
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