He that is born of flesh is flesh, and he that is born of the Spirit is spirit. There is a spiritual side to us, which is more important than our physical side. In everything as Christians, we must act from and by the spirit.
Our heavenly account is of more importance than our earthly account and we must consciously pay attention to its operation.
Yes we all have a heavenly account and Jesus warned that we pay more attention to this account than we do to our earthly account. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
That means you can lay up treasures here on earth, and you can do the same thing in heaven from your time on earth!
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens.”(Luke 12:33)
When bank accounts were held in bags, Jesus taught that there was another bag account in the heavens.
Paul also referred to this account in the admonition to the church in Philippians: “Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.”(Philippians 4:17)
So, we all have a heavenly account. This account is operated in similar ways to how we operate our bank account. You can make deposits and withdrawals at will. But like Jesus said, the account in heaven has major advantages:
It is not subject to loss of whatever kind: no economic upheaval , inflation nor financial system collapse can affect it.
It gives more than monetary returns and for me this is the greatest. Most people lay too much emphasis on “cash”, but the blessings of God maketh complete/whole. It ensures we don’t have emergencies- that means you will not suddenly have a need or an issue you do not have the capacity to meet. It ensures provision and need come side by side. When there is a need, then the resource is available. When you make deposits in this account, a penny with you achieves so much compared to a million in the world. I tell you it is a typical case of give five loaves and two fishes and have more than enough supply to feed a multitude and still have excess! And whatever you cannot afford in a sense you receive for free! A pastor once explained this phenomenon to me in another light; he said even when he does not have the “asset “he always has “access”. Wow! There are a million and one things all the money in the world cannot give you. But the proceeds from your heavenly account gives you access to them.
Another benefit is that your heavenly account is managed by God. And no one gives better returns than Him. Your deposits keeps speaking and bearing fruits.
I am blessed by the story of Cornelius told in Acts 10. Apparently when the time came to pour out the spirit on the Gentiles, God started with a man who had made constant deposits to his heavenly account. “His prayers and gifts to the poor came up as a memorial offering before God”. At that time he was unsaved, but God still kept a record of all the deposits he ever made and rewarded him with the Gift of Gifts!
So how do you make deposits and withdrawals into this account we all have?
Deposit!
As long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest will not cease! Deposits are made in seed time. It is giving time. Anytime we give, we make a deposit into our heavenly account.
Phil 4: 15-17, our seeds or giving is a direct deposit to our account.These accounts can abound and increase through giving to the poor (Proverbs 19:17) Giving to the poor on earth makes an instant deposit in heaven. Jesus said whatsoever you do to the least of them, you do directly to Him. Making any type of investment into the preaching of the Gospel (Mark 10:29,30) and giving simply as praise to God are also deposits to the heavenly account.
So Luke 12:33 says “sell that ye have, and give alms, provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.”
1 Timothy 6:17-19 also says “charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on to eternal life.”
If all you have is a heavy earthly account then your tomorrow is uncertain. Money has failed to save anyone. So focus on your heavenly account through giving, and lay up in store for yourself a good foundation for the time to come.
If giving had no returns I will still give. I cannot imagine a life where I cannot share my resources, my time, my talents and the gift that God has made me, and put in me. Life will be without worth if I cannot give and receive a smile, a hug and a prayer from another person. But thanks be to God because we can make withdrawals from our heavenly account and receiving follows giving.
Withdrawing
Let everyman be a liar, God remains true. The scripture cannot be broken. Our deposits are securely received and multiplied by God. Many have been taught to give, but few Christians expect or know how to receive and withdraw from heaven.
But God who cannot lie affirmed that as we give, it shall be given back to us, good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give to our bosom. And also affirms that He is able to make all grace abound towards us that we always having all sufficiency in all things may abound unto every good work!
The first step to making withdrawals is to have the confidence and consciousness that you have an account you have a right to at anytime. This is key; confident faith and a consciousness. This should lead to an unwavering expectation. Expect always a return on your investment. When you go out, expect to be blessed because men giving to your bosom is a form of withdrawal.
Expect things to work for you. When men fail all over, you win because your account has to be multiplied for you. In Malachi,God said test me and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you down a blessing there will not be room enough to receive it. It’ is confident faith, consciousness and an unwavering expectation at all times that we use to withdraw from heaven.
And finally make verbal demands on your account. Exploit the power of your tongue. A man shall eat good by the fruits of his lips and by the increase he shall be satisfied. When you need anything call it. Say you have it. I have should replace I need. Your faith produces the consciousness which creates an expectation. And out of the abundance of that expectation your mouth speaks forth. That’ is how you make a withdrawal. Be conscious of that. God expects you to expect to receive. He expects you to draw on your heavenly account.
You have an account in the heavens. Use it well. As ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace of giving also. (2 Corinthians 8:7).
We are blessed.
Emmanuel A Aladenusi
| Every day is a brand new day. What ever happened last year, last month or yesterday is in the past. Yesterdays successes and failures don’t count much. This is the day that God has made. So do good to forget about your financial gains and failures and concentrate on today and tomorrow. A great man succeeds because he does one thing…. “Forgetting those things that are behind, I press forward’.
Press forward. Take knowledgeable decisions about your finances. It’s important to diversify your investments. By diversification we simply mean you have different portfolio mix. It means you put your money in different places. Ecc 11:1. Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Ecc 11:2. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowestnot what evil shall be upon the earth. Ecc 11:4. He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth theclouds shall not reap. Ecc 11:5. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bonesdo grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowestnot the works of God who maketh all. Ecc 11:6. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thinehand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, eitherthis or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. Learn the following from the above scripture.
When I read this scripture years back, God showed me why it is different for a SON that is led by the spirit. While scriptures instructs that we diversify, it also affirms that with the leading of the spirit we can always diversify to take advantage of different rate of returns while avoiding loses for the spirit teaches ALL things. While we invest we must avoid having only one form of investment. We must take advantage of the resultant synergy that comes into play when we are much diversified. It’s always wrong for any person or thing to be alone for there is no one to bring up when one falls.
So as Christians how do we diversify? ‘Trust in the lord with all thy heart and lean not on thine own understanding. In All your ways acknowledge God and he will direct you”
Because we are led, we diversify correctly. We see where others don’t see and go where others are fearful to go. By His grace I am yet to make a personal wrong investment decision so far. I have bought stocks that have not recorded profit in seven years and watch them have alarming increases. Why? I have always bought by the spirit.
Take advantage of that too. Diversify by the spirit. -emmanuel aladenusi |
| I work with a financial institution and I have come to discover that for most people savings with a bank is all they know or are content with when it comes to setting money aside. Most people have their seeds sitting in bank accounts earning not more than 3% per annum. So sad!
Letting money lie idle in the bank is according to the Master the least form of investment. In the parable of the talent, Jesus’ explained that the least the unfaithful servant could have done was to put the money in the bank so that on his return he would have collected it with usury (interest). Notice that is the LEAST. Money earns much more when put to work.
So here is a simple rule to follow. With our understanding of seeds we know that they multiply when planted. So money invested produces more money. The soil on which you invest matters. You must invest money where you earn far above the rate at which money looses value. So if prices of things are increasing at 10% per annum then you must invest where you get more than that.
What do you do with the proceeds of your investment? Spend it? No!!! Doing that deprives you of exploring the eight wonder of the world. Somebody put it simply. If you have two servants and they give birth to a third, you don’t give out the third. You put all three to work. The three will give birth to two more then you put all five to work. All five will give birth to three more then you out all eight to work. Let all eight go to work and give birth to 4 more then put all twelve to work. With time you will have a house full of servants. Money is a servant. It grows faster when compounded. By compounding we mean you re-invest the proceeds from the investment. Each time you do this you compound your investment and reduce the time it takes to reach your financial target.
If you invest 20,000 one time and don’t add to it and you reinvest (compound) the proceeds for lets say 47years at 10% above inflation then you will have nearly 2million. Now notice that is a one time investment. On the other hand if you save 20,000 in a bank and keep adding the same 20,000 yearly at the funny 3% returns it gives you will have less than a million after 47years. Now if you invest 20,000 and keep adding 20000 yearly for the same period at the same rate you will have over 17million.
That is the power of compound interest and Einstein called it THE EIGHT WONDER OF THE WORLD. Earn interest on your interest. You have no reason not to leave a fortune for that child. A one time investment for him will make him a millionaire before he even begins work.
Make an investment decision today. Compound your investment and enjoy the eight wonder of the world. –emmanuel aladenusi |
| I read a book by Sam Adeyemi where he said “if you get a hold on the seed principle your future is guaranteed because that is where God invested the future”. That’s a powerful assertion. But is it really true? If it is then we all hold the keys to a lifetime of abundance.
The seed principle is very true. It is the fundamental principle of life and one of the utmost displays of the wisdom of God. Genesis shows us without any doubt that the future was invested in the seed. God makes/produces/creates/births just ONE and plants within that ONE seeds from which he must multiply. I repeat ‘must multiply’. There is no other way of multiplication given under heaven except through seeds and that will remain as long as the earth remains. To be ignorant of this is very fatal.
Look at this “Gen. 1:11: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so”. “Gen. 1:20: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” Gen. 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. Clearly, plants multiply through seeds, how about humans and animals?
Gen. 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Notice the phrase – “thy seed and her seed”. God was saying in essence that enmity wouldn’t be between the two of you (else it will have died with them) but between their seeds i.e. for all generations. That’s why the serpent still bruises the heels today because the curse was placed on the seed and hence the future. God invested the future in the seed.
Glory to God! It means if we all have seeds then we can all have abundance. Thank God we all have seeds because God made sure every thing created were those“whose seed is in itself”. What ever you want, plant a seed of that kind and wait for the harvest. If you want more of it, simply plant more. Take money for example…every penny you get has got more pennies in it. Don’t underestimate that coin. If you don’t plant it then you have lost many coins. Dr Robert Schuler puts it this way “you can count the number of seeds in an apple but you can’t count the number of apples in a seed”.
The ability of life to multiply is perhaps more than our human understanding can comprehend. But the spirit gives us a witness that what we sow we shall reap in appropriate multiples. How do I know a prosperous man? By his seed attitude. If you spend all that money without giving to the kingdom, without investing a portion, I know where you will end up. If you don’t give help to people in many ways, I know where you will end up. If you don’t invest time in books, people, ministry, work, etc. I know how little you will have tomorrow. So sow a seed even though you feel like or not…we work by faith and not by sight. Don’t wait for a convenient time. He that observes the wind will not sow and he that regards the cloud will not reap. Disregard every circumstance. Act in faith; sow a seed. Be fanatical about it. It holds the key to the future. -emmanuel aladenusi
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Myles Munroe once held a small seed in front of a class and asked them what they saw. Looking carefully they agreed they saw a seed. Myles told them he held in his hands a forest. Why? Because in the seed there was a tree, in that tree many fruits, in those fruits many seeds, in those seeds many trees and hence a forest.
Life operates on the seed principle. Scripture makes us understand that as long as the earth remains seedtime and harvest time will not seize (Gen 8: 33). There must be planting before harvest. Investment is planting a seed to ensure a harvest.
To have plenty you must learn to invest. You must consciously and deliberately set aside a portion of all you get. You must learn to plant seeds. Every money you have is a seed, all actions a seed, words, the most powerful of seeds. And unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it abideth alone, but if it dies it brings forth a huge harvest.’
Jesus operated on that principle. He was the seed of David. He died and what harvest his death has produced.
Your seed is in your hand. Don’t eat it. Plant it, let it die and bring forth plenty for you. I love this passage … ‘For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer AND THEN bread to eat…’ 2 Corinthians 9:10. God in his faithfulness gives us seeds with every food to ensure we have plenty to scatter and have plenty. Withhold not thy hand. Plant first AND THEN EAT.
That simply is investment …seed planting
-emmanuel aladenusi
| Information/knowledge is power. But in the search for knowledge you will be exposed to so many books, authors, materials, information etc. confusion sets in. Which is correct? Which approach is best? Which do I experiment first? Why so many contradictions? Save your self the hassles. Start from the word.
Thank God we are Christians and therefore custodians of wisdom, for Christ became wisdom for us. Listen friends, all knowledge and wisdom whose foundation is not the word of God might appear to work, but it will fail. “The wisdom of this age (as dynamic as it is) commeth to nothing” 1 Cor 2:6. Don’t get carried away by the wisdom of men. Results you get from their practice are limited and frail.
The Word of God as contained in scriptures still remains supreme. Start from there. Understand that each time you study the word you are “handling the word of life”. I love that. The Word of life. The Word is the creative force of God. By it all things were created, without the Word was nothing made that was made (John 1:3). All things are sustained by the same Word (Heb 1:3). The totality of life is the Word.
It opens us up to unlimited possibilities. There is no limit to what you can create when you handle the word correctly. Ours is an uncertain world from start to finish. Where do I get capital? How do I protect my investment? Suppose I loose all? Thieves? Stock market crash? Depression? So many frightening alternatives.
But with the word, all things are certain. All things and situations answers to the Word. “We learn how to abound and how to be abased…we learn the secret of life, How to remain the same under all conditions”. We are not afraid to start small. We’ve learnt not to despise little beginnings. We are not afraid to launch out. we have the spirit of boldness…we are coordinated and not ruffled…we have a sound mind….we are not afraid of where to get start up capital…we’ve learnt to call those things that are not as though they were. We have evidence of unseen realities. With the word, I have the assurance my business will prosper…and I know I can rise again seven times in seven. Glory!
The word is to sure. It cannot fail. It is consistent, not time barred nor does it become obsolete. It is not a respecter of persons, governments, policies of economic upheavals. I have read so many books on investment but none can compare to the wisdom discovered in scriptures.
So friends “I commend you to God and to the Word of his power which is able to build you up and give you (deliver to you) an inheritance among those that are sanctified…to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest by the prophetic scriptures…” Rom 16:25-26
-emmanuel aladenusi
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“Before you invest, investigate“. This has been the major rule of most investors. The human mind was originally & naturally configured by God to be a success, so it is not surprising to see much investigation before an investment is made. People want to know how lucrative a business is before they venture into it. Companies & organizations are critically analyzed before their shares are bought. No one wants to invest in a company that will soon experience a decline in profit margin or asset base, not to talk of liquidation.
Not too long ago, a popular bank folded up. I also know of a company whose profit dropped drastically because a doctor claimed that their product was harmful to human health. Such things cause some investors to weep. One major characteristic of almost all investments is Uncertainty – no one knows what could come up tomorrow. Some people in an attempt to solve this problem have concluded that the only investment you can have a high degree of certainty about is when you invest in your children. Their belief is that, in future, they get to pay back in many ways. This is true, but in some cases, the children becomes prodigal and in some other cases, the parents die even before their children are equipped enough to yield returns.
Amidst all these, there is only one investment in which you can be 100% sure that you will have a steady return. Jesus revealed it in Matt 6:19-20 … “Don’t store up treasure here on earth, where they can be eaten by moth and get rusty, and where thieves can break in and steal. Store up treasure in heaven where they will never be moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves”.
This doesn’t mean you should not trade or have earthly investments. Rather, it means that you should not see earthly investments as the best and most valuable. Don’t confide in them for futurity and security because they are liable to loss, rust & corruption. Moreover, they yield returns infinitely lower than kingdom investment.
Kingdom investment has unparallel advantages: it is the only way to make perishable goods/money eternal, because it yields steady returns in this life and in the life to come. It cannot experience liquidation or distress because God manages it. It has no iota of uncertainty because you can be dead sure that God cannot play games with you. It is a treasure that brings steady pleasure without any pressure. The good news is that you can participate in kingdom investment wherever you are and at any time you want. Contribute your time, money & life to God’s work. Support the church and missionaries. Give to other believers. Help the poor always. Whenever you receive your pay cheque or pay envelope, before you venture into earthly investments, go for the bigger one —KINGDOM INVESTMENT!
– tope aladenusi