Antidote to a Poverty Mind-Set

In a recent Blog, I outlined 7-Indicators of a Poverty Mind-set. I want to explain, be means of practical examples, how some of these can be countered.

Bill Johnson, in his recent book “The Way of Life”, mentions 4-Cornerstone Values that have become part of the culture in his church (Bethel, Redding, USA). One of these values is that “Nothing is Impossible with God”. He quotes, “John Wimber used to say, Faith is spelled R-I-S-K. It’s true. That basically means we work to create a time and place for the Extravagant One to show up and do what only He can do” [The Way of Life, Bill Johnson, Destiny Image, p45, par.4].

Some years ago, I look the risk of a career move to a less demanding job, in order to make myself more available for the Kingdom of God. We did this despite the fact that we had a young family and a mortgage. It was during the time of the Charismatic Movement and God was doing some remarkable things in our church. We wanted to be more involved. The career change involved a 20% cut in income and reduced prospects.

Before I could start my new employment, I was taken seriously ill. This eventually resulted in a 4-month absence from work. However, because I had not actually started my new job, I was not entitled to sick pay. We had state sickness benefit alone as income. The Lord provided in each of those 4-months the shortfall between state sickness benefit and our actual needs.

Another example of the riskiness of faith came 17 years later. Susan and I celebrated me being made redundant from the chemical company for which I was working as an Engineer at the time. The company was down-sizing, because of a reduced worldwide demand for its commodity product. The amazing thing about this was that I received a Redundancy/Early Retirement financial package equivalent to what I would have received for retiring 10 years later, had I stayed with the company for whom I originally worked. That is, my employer before I made the career change I mentioned earlier.

Incidentally, Susan, my wife, had been praying for some time that the Lord would pay off our house mortgage: The amount received from the Redundancy/Early Retirement Package was exactly the amount needed to do this. Susan had also been prompted by Holy Spirit to take out mortgage protection insurance (something she/we would not have done on our own initiative) about one year before I was made redundant. This meant our house mortgage was paid for the first year after my redundancy or until I got another job, which ever came first.

We learned a number of things from these personal experiences: God doesn’t forget; He looks after you and doesn’t allow you to lose out when you trust Him and take a risk of faith; He protects you financially against future adverse circumstances (as long as you listen to Holy Spirit and take action on his prompting).