Wealth out of Ashes

The chapters of the book establish some key thoughts as follows: 1. Ownership: The basic resources, silver and gold, that humankind have toiled and schemed and erected strongholds and enslaving untruths for, belong to God. Ownership suggests it belongs to God and responds to the will of the owner and is increased or reduced based on His intentions and principles and not ours. 2. Stewardship is an important concept suggesting that wealth will gravitate to where it is best utilised for the purpose of the owner. Employment of wealth against the ethics and rules of the one who demands an account also attracts punitive consequences. 3. The Eternal perspective compels us to review our time-based measures and think in terms of journeys, cycles and processes. There are phases of learning and discipline from which we learn key lessons so that we prosper. Success is aligning with God’s perspective and often requires acquisition of vast sums to finance major moves of God but may also demand a wilderness experience to purge our values. Both experiences are equally required in the Kingdom. 4. The Covenant Vision implies seeing the purposes, ways and objectives for which we are empowered with wealth i.e.to establish God’s Kingdom and entrench His principles and facilitate His ordinances and not to finance a lifestyle. 5. Conditions and consequences especially when negative are indicators that there is a great and mighty regulator - God, and putting Him aside will attract unpleasant outcomes that should cause the discerning to rethink, repent and return to Him. Consequences are meant to teach vital disciplines yet to be learnt. His conditions remind us that that the abundance belongs to Him and He does as He pleases...we ought simply to learn to please Him. 6. The ways of God are not our ways. When we surrender our lives to Jesus we know we need a renewal of our minds and become again as a child. This is more especially so in how we see money and how we manage it. The ways already learnt are not the ways of God and must be unlearnt for new truths about monetary issues and processes. The monetary systems already established are designed for human control and build platforms for evil and greed. Debt is its main tool, a modern weapon of enslavement. 7. The Prosperous Church describes the experience of the Church in Philippi renowned for its generosity especially to the Apostle Paul – a major driver of growth in Christianity in the first century AD. 8. Lifestyle Creep. We must remember that as we are blessed to have our needs met, God wants us to have more than enough to meet the needs of others and honour Him as we give to His work and the poor. The surplus is not to be wasted on a lifestyle but must be invested cautiously. We are in an era of intensive lifestyle marketing and the unheeding finds himself squandering the substance that is holy and belongs to God. 9. Rain from Heaven reminds us to lift up our eyes to the Heavens to seek God from whence our help comes. Toiling should not be confused or mistaken for diligence...and the differences are highlighted. 10. War on Debt provides insights on how to battle the monster called Debt and how to put finances to work and illustrations from the experiences of investors who have been blessed with success. 11. The Benefits in Crises. This chapter concludes that crises are not just positive but can be necessary to eventuate the critical turning points needed for God’s will to be done in our lives, homes and even the nations. 12. Coming out of the Valley. The concluding chapter suggests what could be done to come out of valley situations, noting of course that we cannot shortcut the divine purposes of God. We can spend more time in the valley of crisis if we do not appreciate the vital adjustments God expects. It ends with prayer points we can borrow for our times of devotion It does not really matter that we agree, believe, accept or reject God’s ways. He would not be God, if He required our consent or cooperation to be who He is. God persuades us with His truth, but is not under obligation to explain that which He has not chosen to reveal. The search for hidden wisdom beyond what is plainly revealed in Holy Scriptures and lust for wealth by any means has led to the emergence of all manners of clever and mystic craft laced with false promises of further wisdom and knowledge. What is plainly missing is our obedience to God’s revealed instructions and not the search for new truths.