Come Buy Without Money

Let us look at the Finance or Debt-based Model, typical of most, if not all, the existing economies of the world. This system, as we know, has a great propensity to increase money supply and generate inflation, but has no sound asset base, and is surprisingly volatile; therefore it runs the risk of largely unexpected deflation, financial collapse or recession and depression. This is where the world’s economy is at present. At the time of the writing of this book, there was the likelihood of imminent double-digit deflation. We are in the midst of a world-wide monetary collapse. Stock markets, which are patterned after this finance model, are risky business these days. Stocks are for the most part no longer very sound investments. Much of their business is governed more by sentiments surrounding what could happen rather than conventional or orthodox economic laws. For example, the Dow Jones index will go up if the American population or the international community feels that the economy is improving. Or, once the balance sheets of companies trading on the stock market appear to be favorable on paper, people would tend to buy more stock belonging to those companies. Thus companies would do all in their power to ensure attractive balance sheets. The reality, however, is that such favorable looking balance sheets are invariably at the expense of loss of jobs and financial instability of the population. For example, if Company Y retrenches a significant number of people, its balance sheet would improve; stock brokers and investors would feel that the company is making economic strides, and thus promote the company’s stock. The company itself benefits in the short-run, but in the meantime, more people have been placed on the breadline; family life is severely affected even as stress and tension increase in the society. Stock markets around the world, with all due respect to world financial and economic czars, appear to be glorified gambling institutions. If mere suspicions surrounded them previously, the present recession has cleared the fence, so to speak. Speculations have given rise to stark reality. Many genuine investors in stock markets around the world in recent times woke up one morning and all their fortunes were gone. This writer’s own experience with his local stock market has further confirmed this. Stocks on which I spent as much as eighteen thousand dollars ($18,000.00) over eight (8) years ago are now worth less than fifty (50) to sixty (60) percent of their purchase price. Is this the system that God wanted us to depend on? Further, I heard of a situation in one of the Caribbean islands where, with the collapse of a well-known, previously attractive, aggressive and progressive financial company, investors lost millions of hard-earned cash, with no hope of recovery or bail-out. This has been the pattern in many parts of the United States and countries around the world. Many well-meaning, but unwise believers in Christ have found themselves in this financial dilemma because the majority of their money was invested in the wrong place. It should have been placed in the Kingdom. Again, the question must be asked: “Is this debt-based model the system by which God intended for us to truly prosper?” I think not. The more I study the Word of God is the more I realize that God has always had a better plan for us… What is clear from the foregoing description and practical account of the finance or debt-based economic model is that it is highly risky and surprisingly very unreliable. It is prone to many mistakes, miscalculations, and unpredictability, to say the least. Yet this is the system that the peoples of the world have depended upon for decades. Ironically, and alarmingly so, statistics indicate that while the world is in recession, and while people are being retrenched, and are losing their homes and businesses, many companies are making bumper profits. In 2009, surplus profits of reinsurance companies and mop-up or “scavenger” companies were the largest ever achieved, rising to billions of dollars. Thus while poverty has been increasing, debt collectors and expert debt purchasers have been having a field day. All this is happening over and above the bailout money paid by Government to many of these companies. Some of the larger banks are also making billions of dollars in profit (over $21 billion in net profits during the April to June quarter, 2010). Ironically, also raking in bumper profits is the pharmaceutical industry, mainly because of increased stress among consumers and related spin-off effects. Where have we gone wrong? Does God sanction greed, sophisticated gambling, organized deception and the like? Can He truly put His stamp of approval on these debt-based models? You be the judge of that. The more I look at this debt-based model is the more I am convinced that this could not be the ideal economic model for us to live by and make the true progress in the earth as God has always wanted us to make as His children. Could it be why the Bible says that the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous (Prov. 13:22b)? When is the right time for the transfer? Has the time past or is it somewhere in the future? Or, is it now? It is undeniably now. I believe that the reason why the wealth is not yet in the hands of the righteous is that the righteous are not ready for it; many believers are not yet mature enough to handle it … God is waiting for the body of Christ to get understanding, wisdom and knowledge, establish purpose and meet the conditions for Kingdom wealth before He releases it to His children. He does not want us switching our allegiance from Him to the wealth itself, for it is the tendency of the immature and the spiritually uninitiated to do so. That is the immense value of a book like this.