Part 1:        Poverty and Debt – the Cause and Cure

By Clive Pick

The Kingdom of God has its own economy and Kingdom Economics is a study of what the Word of God says about finances and how we should finance the Kingdom of God. In the next issues we will be looking at the various elements of Kingdom Economics in order to give you a personal financial breakthrough and you can break the power of debt and poverty over your life and break through financially. Whether you are in business, a housewife, a missionary, a pastor or whatever sphere of life you may find yourself, you are going to need money. Nothing on earth moves without money and so in every area that God has called you, you are going to need money. Moreover, it is the purpose of God to release finances to His people so that the Gospel may be preached around the world.

We also will be looking at the authority that we have as believers to break the power of debt and poverty, to break curses over countries and towns, businesses and ministries. The whole structure of poverty and debt is a spirit and as God’s children we have authority over every power and principality. As you begin to walk in God’s principles, you will start to find that your finances are changing. This is not a vague promise; it’s an absolute definite.

Let me say at the outset, that you’ve got to be accurate to God’s Word. I am not talking about being legalistic; I’m talking about being accurate. We can’t modify or adapt God’s Word to suit our personal circumstances. In Mark 16:20 we read: and they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. Well, this is a word on finances, and so there will be financial signs and wonders that will follow this teaching and will follow you as you walk into the understanding of the subject.

What is poverty?

First of all poverty is a spiritual force. Like every evil spirit it has a personality and a nature that wants to manifest itself on earth. Poverty is a condition of living from hand to mouth. The Bible talks about abundance. Poverty gets you into a position where you are just scraping through until the end of the week or the end of the month. The cause of poverty is a failure of harvest, poor crops or excessive interest rates and usury of money lending. Now, I’ll be talking not just about money, but about actually releasing God’s blessings, which includes a release of richness in our crops as well.

What is debt?

Debt also is a spiritual force, a bondage. Debt is the inability to meet an agreed financial obligation. Debt can also form a barrier around you to stop money that has been assigned to you from coming to you. I have found that poverty, debt and Mammon are the three main forces against the body of Christ in the area of finances. However, we have been given authority over these spiritual forces.

Causes of poverty and debt

We have a role to play

The first thing we need to understand is that God will not do our part and we cannot do God’s part. Many Christians just sit there saying, “God I need this, I need that” and are expecting it to drop out of heaven. Well, that’s not the system. God needs us. God is in a covenant with us and therefore there is a partnership between God and us. He needs us; we need God. When you limit yourself, you limit God. When you limit God, you limit yourself. There are no barriers around any of you. You can go as far as God tells you to go. The devil will try and tell you that there are barriers around you: you can’t do this because of a lack of money; you can’t do that because of your education; you can’t do this because of the situation you’re in. Those are merely barriers and when you get up to them in faith, you will find that they don’t exist. You will just push through them.

I want you to start to release expectancy in your hearts. When you start expecting things to happen, it creates an atmosphere for miracles to happen. There will be a breakthrough. We don’t have to wait months and years for God to operate. In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, we find that the man who did the least talked the most. You actually have to stop talking about what you are going to do for God and get on with it. When you start to walk in God’s Word and you start to do God’s Word, things starts to happen. Now, you can learn about a lot of things, but if you just retain them as knowledge, they will not work for you. You have to receive the knowledge and then do it. People are not blessed for what they intend to do, but for what they do.

Spiritual laws and ordinances

Now, everything that God does is according to a pattern and based on a principle of His Kingdom. There are spiritual laws in operation and spiritual ordinances that we actually have to obey. There are structures within the Kingdom of God. We read in Revelation 2:7: He who has an ear, let his hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. What is the Spirit saying to the churches? We are in a season for finances to be released into the Kingdom of God and we need not only to accept that, but actually move in and work along with the Spirit God releasing the finance.

At this point I want to make it clear that we don’t raise money for the Kingdom of God, we release it. That is a very, very important principle that you always must remember. Raising money takes human effort; releasing money takes spiritual authority. God will always pay for what He orders. When we do something in the flesh we will find that God will not pay for it and then we’ve got to pay for it in the flesh. But whatever God asks you to do for Him, as you step out in faith, you will find the provision strategically placed along the pathway of obedience.

Unfortunately the church and individuals are focusing on personal financial survival rather than Kingdom advancement. You know how it goes, “Lord, we need money for this and we need money to help us through the week, and we need money for clothes and food.” We should do what Matthew 6:33 says: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. As you seek God first, you will find that all the things you want and desire will come as well; this is what I have discovered in my life.

We need to renew our minds

God doesn’t mind you making money, He just minds you serving it. So, I want you to start to renew your minds about the whole area of money. As God’s children it is not right for you to be in poverty. It is not right for you to be struggling from day to day. Jesus said it is far more blessed to give than to receive. So if we have nothing to give, we are not being blessed. The principle that I am teaching you, is to be able to be a blessing. There has to be a giver and there has to be a receiver. Both parties are vital. So I want you to open your mind and allow God to bless you with more than enough so you can bless others. Some people say, “Well, I’m all right! I’ve got enough money to live on. I’m not expecting God to release any more to me, because I am all right!” That is selfish. If you’re at that level, then why not then give the surplus to the Kingdom of God? You need to expect more from God than you need, so that you can start to invest in the Kingdom of God.

If we look around the world today we see that the church is struggling financially. That is not according to the Word of God. The Bible tells us very clearly that there should be more than enough to invest in other ministries, etc. What Father is doing at this time is He’s bringing His people into financial maturity. Now, this is something we need to understand, because our motivation for financial increase should be to bless others for the expansion of the Kingdom of God so that we can hasten the return of Jesus. When you focus on that, you will find that your attitude towards money changes. When you start to handle money it will expose your true nature. Nothing will change a personality or expose his true nature other then a sudden influx of money. So, God is bringing us to a place of financial maturity so that we will be able to handle the money God is going to send to us. God is bringing us into that place where He can start to release the money to us because He knows where it is going to go. What Father is looking for is not givers; He is looking for stewards. There is a tremendous difference between a giver and a steward. Sometimes givers can be manipulated into giving money. A steward will always respond to the direction of his master. We’ve got to get into a stewardship mentality. We need to understand, however, that giving to God is not a mechanical thing; it’s a relational thing and it comes out of an act of worship. If it merely was a mechanical thing, we would all be millionaires by now!

So there is something that is actually missing from my understanding of God’s Word financially because the Bible tells us that when we give it shall be given unto us, there will be more than enough, there is going to be abundance. But we are not actually seeing this happen. So obviously there are some vital keys that need to be understood. This is what we are going to be looking at.

Laws, Structures and Ordinances

In God’s Kingdom, Jesus is King and in that Kingdom there are spiritual laws, spiritual structures and spiritual ordinances. Let me make it clear that this has nothing to do with the Law of the Old Testament! These are spiritual laws (principles) that God put into place at the very foundation of the earth. These spiritual laws are so powerful that they will prevent God’s blessings reaching you if you are disobedient to them. It is not what we have to do to get God to bless us. His heart, His nature is to bless us continuously. We have to look at what is preventing God’s blessings from reaching us with His dispatch. There have been all sorts of gimmicks in the church to try and raise money, but as I have said before, we release money for the Kingdom of God. So what is preventing God’s fullness from coming to us?

Spiritual authority

You can’t break through in the physical until you conquer the spiritual. Now, your financial breakthrough is not on earth, it has nothing to do with your job, it has nothing to do with any inheritances or your family situation. Your financial breakthrough has to do with what is happening in the spirit realm. So we need to take a look at what is happening in the spirit realm, not what is happening on earth. Every law on earth (and I know that because I was a Police Officer for 25 years) has a penalty if you disobey it. That is how laws are enforced. In the spirit realm, in the Kingdom of God, there are spiritual laws that, if we disobey them, will be enforced by Satan exercising his legal rights against the body of Christ. So, if we don’t give the devil any legal opportunity to get into our lives, he can’t. He can operate only through our disobedience and by allowing him to have a foothold. There is a tremendous financial battle raging against the body of Christ. Your authority will outrank your ability. So don’t look at what you can and what you can’t do!

We have been given authority to call things into place. One of the very first lessons I ever learned about authority was when I first went into the ministry. I am not teaching you from a place of theology. I am teaching you from practical experience. Everything I am teaching you, I have done. I have been through it and I know it works. Matthew 28:18 says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. When I first went into the ministry I had to trust God totally for money for everything that I needed: for food, for petrol and I was literally living on miracles for about three years. That was a very different scenario from where I had been in the business world because in the business world I had plenty of money - no shortage at all. However, before I went into the ministry the Lord took everything away from me and so I had to start with absolutely nothing at all. I had to trust God and not my bank balance - some of you might be experiencing the same thing. This is not God’s Word not working for you, it is God working in your life to teach you how to trust Him. I found that the quicker you learn to trust God, the quicker your breakthrough will come, it’s as simple as that.

Testimony

Well, the very first miracle that changed my life happened when Esther and I had been in the ministry for about three months. We were believing God for every bit of food we ate and Esther had invited a couple of pastors from Uganda to come and stay with us. She was going to cook what she called a “pepper stew”- pure chili and absolutely wonderful! Esther had done all the preparation and the guests were due to arrive in three hours’ time but when she went to the freezer to look for a chicken she found that there was no meat in the freezer at all. She asked me to go out and buy a chicken, but I had to tell her that I couldn’t because we had no money. “Well”, she said, “but I need a chicken!” “Well”, I replied, “no money equals no chicken”. I suggested she chop up some vegetables but she was adamant “It’s a chicken stew and I need a chicken”. I didn’t know what to do and the guests were arriving in three hours’ time. Suddenly she looked at me and said, “Where is your faith, man of God?” “What do you mean?” I replied. “Well,” she said, “Philippians 4:19 says: ‘But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’ We need a chicken!” So Esther started marching up and down the kitchen and said, “Father, You say in Your Word that You will supply all my need and my greatest need at the moment is a chicken so I release the chicken in the name of Jesus.” Then she turned to me and said: “Well, do I hear an ‘Amen’?” So I said “Amen”. One hour later there was a knock on the door and when I opened the door, there was a sister standing there with a chicken in her hand. She told us that while at the supermarket the Lord had said to her, “Take a chicken right away to Clive and Esther”. That chicken changed my life! If God can supply a chicken to the cry of Esther, how much more will He supply finances to us to save the lost going to hell! We have a Father who is waiting to finance His Kingdom.

One planet - two kingdoms

When you left the Kingdom of Darkness and were saved and born again, you entered the Kingdom of Light. However, you also left one economy system for another economy. Now many Christians have one foot in the economy system of the Kingdom of Darkness and the other in the economy system of the Kingdom of God. As a result they remain stationary because when we move we’ve got to move both feet into a new economy system. Don’t expect the world to finance the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it won’t happen. They are opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re on the same planet, but there are two kingdoms. You are in the Kingdom of God, which has its own financial system. In Matthew 16:19 (Amplified Bible) we read: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; [Keys speak of authority] and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful)l on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.” If we are obedient to God’s principles, then debt, poverty, lack and insufficiency, are unlawful in die Kingdom of God. Wherever we are is where the Kingdom of God is, so we’ve got to start taking authority over our towns and our villages to break the strongholds of poverty and debt. When Jesus ministered on earth there was no lack; He always had sufficient to meet every need. Before feeding the 5000, the disciples asked Him if they had to go and buy 200 Denarii’s worth of bread, so there must have been enough money in the purse to feed 5000 people! His ministry was righteous, pure and holy, and because of that He had all authority. We can’t take all authority if there is unrighteousness in our lives. In John 14: 30 (Amplified Bible) Jesus says: “I will not talk with you much more, for the prince, (evil genius, ruler) of the world [he is the prince of the air] is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me]” [or foothold over me]. Jesus was saying to His disciples “look the devil is coming as an evil genius, this is who you’re dealing with. He is the prince of the air, he runs the world’s economy although he does not own the money within it.” The financial world system is corrupt, because Satan runs it.

Active faith

The only way to a place of authority is through faithfulness. Faith is simply taking God at his Word; it makes things possible, not easy. As you step out in faith, it might not be a smooth ride, but your authority will allow you to move out in faith and see things done as God has asked you to do. Your success is not in your hands but in your mouth. What you speak out is very, very important. Remember, Jesus is the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1). So often Christians hinder themselves by speaking out negative words. If you keep saying, “Well, I don’t suppose I’ll ever get a new car” or “I suppose I‘ll never have enough equipment to run my own business” or “I don’t suppose I’ll ever have my house fully paid for”, you won’t be disappointed. You are speaking out exactly what you will be getting! I am talking about speaking out the Word of God positively. As you speak out things will finally come into position according to the Word of God. What you are using is the authority of Jesus to enforce these spiritual laws and structures. If police officers did not enforce the law, nobody would take any notice of them. The devil is very quick to enforce his laws if we are disobedient! So, similarly we should begin to enforce the spiritual laws that are around us and that govern our financial flow. We’ve got to begin to believe God and start to take aggressive action in the spirit realm because we’re in a battle. I’m not talking about taking a passive attitude to this at all. God can operate only through His Word and His covenant. He can’t suddenly say “Well, you have been trying very hard. Therefore I’ll make an exception for you.” It doesn’t work that way; we’ve got to be accurate and in line with God’s Word.

Old Testament examples

When you go through the Old Testament you will find many accounts of great wealth. Abraham was very wealthy, ; Jacob had great wealth, Isaac had wealth, the kings of Israel had wealth,. That is our pattern, that is our inheritance. There was much wealth throughout the Old Testament.

When Israel came out of bondage they were promised a land that had more than enough, but they postponed their blessing for 39 years and 11 months. Their journey should have taken them only two or three weeks but because they grumbled and were disobedient their promise of wealth, their promise of abundance was postponed. They carried their wealth around on their backs, but they couldn’t spend it. Remember, the wealth wasn’t their provision - God was their provision as they spent 40 years in the wilderness! So we’ve got to be obedient to release what God has for us.

Righteousness - a prerequisite

In Proverbs 13:22 we read that the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Now, it must be stored up, because we have not seen it yet. And whom is it stored up for? The righteous. You see, God cannot transfer money from an unrighteous world to an unrighteous church. We’ve got to be righteous, we’ve got to be pure and we’ve got to be holy to be able to receive the wealth. God cannot break His covenant and He cannot break His Word. Unless we, the church, are righteous, God is unable to transfer that finance. This is why God is bringing us to a place of holiness and righteousness. Jesus is coming back for a pure bride without spot or blemish, but there are some things in-between that God wants to do for us that He can’t to unless we are righteous. So we are all being refined; we are all being made pure and holy. Every time something happens in your life, you wonder, “Oh Lord is there anything else?” and then the Holy Spirit points out something else. When that has been put right, you think, “Oh Lord, surely there can’t be anything else now” and something else gets touched on. Well, I’ve got news for you. This is going to continue until Jesus comes, because it is the only way we are made righteous! So get exited when God touches you and highlights things in your life that need to be put right, because the more righteous you are, the more authority you are going to have. Wealth will always amplified the position you have in life and this is way Father is making sure that we are ready to handle this wealth.

Establishing God’s Kingdom on earth

We need to pull down and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. We can pull down God’s glory; we can pull down His authority; we can pull down everything, including heaven’s resources, on earth. Matthew 6:10 says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. So we can actually pull down the resources that we need for the Kingdom of God. I hear of many enormous visions around the world, where God is saying, “I want you to build this church” or “I want you to establish this” when in the physical there is no money. But as these churches move on in faith and in righteousness to these visions, so the finances are being released. We shouldn’t worry about money. We shouldn’t worry about what we can or what we can’t do. Let me share another testimony about something the Lord asked me to do.

Satan’s strategy

Let’s look at the strategy that Satan uses to keep us from receiving what God has in store for us. He used this strategy on me to try and keep me from reading, until God showed me the way out. First of all we need to understand that Satan stole the blessings from Adam. In Genesis 3:1 we read: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? You see, he was speaking only half the truth and he is still doing the same thing today! Are you sure tithing is a New Testament practice? Are you sure that God expects you to give 10%? Isn’t that a bit legalistic? Surely, you should give more than that! Don’t worry about the tithe and if you do think about tithing, well, send it wherever you like. The church has enough money. So what happened? As soon as Adam and Eve had eaten of that fruit, the stewardship role between man and God was broken and the blessings were cursed and eventually God put the man and the woman out of the Garden - away from where their blessings were. They couldn’t get to them. There was a spiritual breakdown between God and man in the area of stewardship. So, when God was walking in the cool of the evening and He asked Adam, “Adam where are you?” it wasn’t a game of hide-and-seek. God knew that the stewardship role between man and God had been broken! What really happened? Satan seized the title rights to the world’s wealth.

Let’s turn to Luke 4:5-8. “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power [authority] will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”. It is quite clear from this passage that Satan had the legal title rights to the wealth of the world and tempted Jesus with it - otherwise it wouldn’t have been a temptation for Christ. Jesus, however, rebuked the devil on the fact that he was trying to get Him to worship him BUT He did not rebuke him on the fact that he had said the wealth was his to give! So it must have been a legal temptation. I want you to notice that Satan also said “all this authority” - so Satan had the authority to pass it on to Jesus if He worshipped him. However, when Jesus died and rose again, immediately the title rights to the world’s wealth were taken back and through Jesus Christ that wealth now belongs to us, the church of Jesus Christ.

Now after Jesus ascended to heaven we see in the book of Acts that suddenly thousands were being added to the church. Wealth was distributed to anyone in need and they were not short of money. There was a radical outbreak of giving. This was not an outbreak from the flesh, but a Divine move of the Spirit of God where people were giving radically, sharing with those who had a need. If we look back throughout church history there has not been any sovereign move of God over His church financially. That is to come in the last days. But at the time of the book of Acts the devil had a big problem: thousands were being added to the church daily, everyone had plenty and they were sharing it around. In Acts 4 we see that they were beginning to lay money at the apostles’ feet. So, what does the devil do? He used the very same strategy he had used in the Garden of Eden! Remember? The first Adam lost mankind’s blessings, the second Adam, Jesus, came to restore mankind’s blessings. And so in Acts 5 we see that Ananias and Saphira had sold some property but withheld more than was right and lied to the Holy Spirit. As a result of that they lost their lives. But what happened? As soon as Ananias and Saphira died a withholding spirit was released into the very foundations of the New Testament church and from Acts 5 to the end of the book of Revelation you will find no account of radical giving. No account of thousands of being added to the church daily. Why? Because that withholding spirit legally came into the foundations of the New Testament Church and from then until now, that withholding spirit has still been in place.

Key to Restoration

Now what does the withholding spirit make the main play for. It is the tithe. You don’t give the tithe you don’t sow the tithe, and the tithe is not an offering. The tithe is something you return. If you don’t return it, you are withholding it. Now that is the key the church needs to turn, because the tithe is the key to the release - not only of finances for the body of Christ, but also of the authority of the body of Christ. Do you know that figures quoted a few years ago show that 80% of the church worldwide do not tithe! That is why we do not see the authority that we should be seeing as believers. Jesus said “greater things will you do in My name than I have done” (John 14:12). That is for us, church!

Let me give you a definition of the word “authority” according to the Bible Dictionary, because unless we understand what authority is, we can never move into it. Authority is the power or right to do something, particularly to give orders and see that they are followed. The word “authority” as used in the Bible usually means a person’s right to do certain things because of the position or office he/she holds. [The office that we hold is that of the body of Christ, servants of God, ministers of the Gospel.] The word emphasizes the legality and the right more than physical strength needed to do something. So it doesn’t matter whether we are 7 years or 70, we have to start flowing in the authority, we have to start binding and loosing, we have to start releasing and as we move into this authority by obedience to the Word of God, we will start seeing things change around us financially. How can we come out of debt if we owe God money? The spirit of debt will only be saying, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? (Acts 19:15) How are you going to break the spirit of robbery, break the spirit of car hijackings in this country and  street crime if we are robbing God on a Sunday morning? When we rob God on a Sunday morning then  we have no voice over our communities in the area of robbery.

Church, if we want to rise up and take authority in the Spirit realm, we have to be righteous and accurate to God’s Word. Only then we can bind on earth what needs to be bound in heaven and loose on earth which needs to be loosed in heaven. Remember, your financial breakthrough is not on earth, it is in the spirit realm and it can’t break through in the physical until you conquer the spiritual.

Clive Pick is the founder of Storehouse Ministries, established in April 1992 when the Lord gave him an end-time commission on Kingdom Economics. Clive’s Ministry is known for releasing the Church into God’s blessing and full provision. He has a regular television programme on Christian Channel Europe called Money Matters. He is married to Esther and they live in Bromley. This article is an extract from a recording by the World Mission Centre, Pretoria, South Africa and is printed with their permission. The tapes are available at 27 12 343 1165.