Investing on the right side of the global wealth equation

[notice] A fortnightly column by Johannesburg Business Editor, Patrick Kuwana. [/notice]

In the last month God has given me the privilege of traveling to the USA to meet Kingdom investors and to participate in numerous meetings and forums to discuss economic transformation. I don’t have enough space to outline all the meetings but here is a sample of the people the Lord is using to practically manifest Kingdom economy – A Pastor in Portland who is buying up hotels and using them to provide hotel services and using the hotel conference rooms as church meeting facilities, which means he now has a 24/7 revenue generation operation that serves hotel guests with the love of Jesus and still serves as an equipping centre for the flock that God has entrusted to him. Another is a Kingdom businessman who God has given the vision to set up a US based bank founded on Biblical principles such as making sure all loan deals carry a maximum 7 year payment period and all customers are offered Biblical financial education and debt relief services. Just imagine a bank focused on getting people out of debt! I also spoke to several Christian mutual funds that focus on providing clients with Biblically responsible stock investment products. As part of these many discussions we also had the opportunity to discuss ideas around a Kingdom Global Investment Fund that will provide funding for Kingdom projects that will drive the establishment of the Global Kingdom Trade Network which will prosper in the times of famine we are entering into right now as the mammon driven world economy is brought to its knees’.

We are either investing on God’s side or the devil’s side
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) and he created it with all the resources required to sustain His beloved creation (us) for as long as we are present on earth. After God created human beings in his own image, He then tells us to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and govern it (Genesis 1:28). This is God’s instruction to humans to procreate and also set up an economic system to ensure that the resources of the earth are managed in a way that will ensure that all people are sufficiently provided for. God also gives Adam and Eve clear instructions on what resources they can use and those they can’t. (Genesis 2:15).

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Unfortunately humans decided to violate God’s instructions and consumed a resource that God had told them not to consume (Genesis 3:6). From this point onwards what we see in the world are two groups trying to seek dominion over the works of God’s hand (the resources of the earth). Those who reject God and continue to walk in disobedience to God and those who have repented of their sins and have turned back to God and importantly are following and obeying His statutes for all areas of life and society as outlined in His word and as directed by the Holy Spirit.

So in the area of wealth we have a situation that we can summarize in a simple equation –

Total Global Wealth = Wealth held in the Kingdom of God + Wealth held in the kingdom of the devil

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The ‘Wealth held in the Kingdom of God’ refers to assets and financial resources that are in the hands of stewards who are using them according to God’s economic system for the purposes of seeing the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth and fulfilling the manifestation of His will on earth as it is in heaven.

The ‘Wealth held in the kingdom of the devil’ refers to assets and financial resources that are in the hands of man (both non-Christians and Christians) who are using them for the purposes of their own desires and therefore being used to further the economic system of the enemy which is based on materialism, greed and the accumulation of riches outside the guidelines of God’s economic, financial and business principles.

Defining the ‘wealth options’ in these 2 very distinct areas without any middle ground seems quite harsh and can bring a lot of controversy but it comes from the understanding that Jesus clearly gives us two choices when he says in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  So whatever wealth is not being used to further God’s interests is therefore furthering the interests of the devil since Jesus once again says “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.” (Luke 11:23). With Jesus there is no middle ground.

The ideal situation should read – Total Global Wealth = Wealth held in the Kingdom of God  because this will mean that all of the resources on earth are being used to honour the Lord. But unfortunately even in our nation which claims to be 72 per cent Christian we still see the equation showing that – Wealth held in the kingdom of the devil’> (is greater than) Wealth held in the Kingdom of God. The levels of crime, corruption, materialism, greed, poverty are clear evidence of this fact and so is the declining rate of giving in churches and the constant lack of resources in mission and ministry organisations.

The sad reality
The sad reality is that most of us in the body of Christ have placed our wealth on the enemy’s side of the equation and hence are actually working against the Kingdom of God. We have continued to operate our economic affairs according to the principles that the world has taught us and we have been ignorant of what God says about His Kingdom economic system. Most of our investments are therefore sitting on the enemy’s side of the equation and hence the Lord cannot use them for His purposes because we have kept them from Him (because we have taken up the position of ownership instead of stewardship).

God’s economic framework is very different to the world’s framework and hence the investment and reward principles are typically in opposition. God says that His people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). We are now in a critical season where we as believers of Jesus Christ need to seriously take stock of where our financial and economic allegiance lies – on God’s side or the enemy’s.  If our assets/resources/wealth are not surrendered to the Lord and linked to a Kingdom purpose then we need to realise that we are building on the wrong side and hence furthering the interests of the devil on earth.

So the question every believer of Jesus Christ should be asking is – which side of the equation have I invested in? If we have invested on the wrong side we need to bring this before the Lord and repent and reinvest in the Kingdom economy that has the potential to give a 100 fold return in our lifetime but also gives a 100 per cent guaranteed eternal return as the glory of God is projected into a ‘hurting and confused world’ that is desperately seeking the answer which we have.