From Finance to Faith: Redefining Wealth and Promoting Financial Freedom Through God's Perspective

I’m not a theologian. In fact, I come from a finance and technology background that God has used to bring financial freedom to millions of people inside the church and outside the church. 

However, I’ve made one poignant observation: There has been a lot of poor teaching on money in the church.

Either leaders teach that money is evil, or they don’t teach on money at all. Or, they teach some form of the prosperity gospel. Money is tricky to talk about, but the truth is, there are many powerful Biblical truths on finances. 

What is Financial Freedom?

Financial freedom means different things to different people, but I define it this way: Financial freedom means you have enough to accomplish your destiny and the ability to help others reach theirs. 

Some would add being debt-free to the definition. I would hesitate to add that since not all debt is bad, or oppressive. Covered debt and leverage would fall into that category. But for the majority of people, debt is oppressive.  

What is “Wealthy”?

You’re wealthy when you have enough money to enable your destiny, to help others reach theirs, and to have no oppressive debt. That means your economic value has no bearing on your wealth value. You may need to be a millionaire to fulfill your destiny reaching the leaders of technology. But you may need a whole lot less serving in rural Iowa. Or even less serving in a village in Mozambique. Neither is better than the other. God doesn’t measure “wealthy” by our economic standards. To God, we are wealthy when we have intimacy with Him– we hear His voice and obey.  Money is just a vehicle to enable us to accomplish that which He calls us to do.

That being said, God does choose to bless those who can handle money with more. Why? I believe the blessing is to enable His Kingdom purposes on earth. I’m not a prosperity gospel messenger in the sense that I believe if you give $100, God is going to give you a million dollars.  He might, but for most people that kind of thinking would be quite dangerous.  

Proverbs tells us wealth gained quickly won’t be blessed.  Rather than a “get rich quick” teaching, God uses the term “steward.” In modern English, the word might be “manager.” If we’re living paycheck to paycheck, we’re not managing. We’re surviving. We have to have something to manage, which speaks to having more than enough to survive. That can be accomplished at any income level. I have story after story of people earning six-figure incomes living paycheck to paycheck. And I have stories of people earning minimum wage with a home paid off, no debt, and they continually give and bless others. 

Isn’t Poverty More Spiritual?

I’m also not a poverty gospel messenger.  Many were taught that poverty is more spiritual. But if that’s the case, then why did Jesus tell us to give to the poor? That would seem to annul their spirituality. And why would God give King Solomon wisdom that led to the accumulation of indescribable wealth? That would seem God wanted to destroy him and Israel. Why would God give Job a double blessing after Satan stole his wealth? Satan stole the wealth. God gave Job more wealth. 

Clearly, God doesn’t measure spiritual wealth with economic wealth. God blesses you so you can be a blessing. The measure of blessing is based on your own destiny and ability to handle the blessing.

The Purpose of Prosperity

Prosperity is a gift from God to be used in multiple ways. Believe it or not, God commanded a festival tithe so Israel could celebrate. Prosperity is to be enjoyed, and God’s goodness is to be celebrated. 

But God doesn’t stop there. If He did, we would be at risk of forgetting about God and indulging in our gluttony and lusts. He calls us to give. Why? He certainly doesn’t need the money. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He can take money from a fishes’ mouth. We give to show the anxious consumer culture around us a better way. We give to expand the kingdom and have positive impact on the myriad of needs out there. 

The more we give, the happier we become. Why? Because when we give, we increase in righteousness, which increases our contentment and causes us to be able to give even more.

Do we increase in righteousness just due to our giving? Not exactly. We increase in righteousness when we know all our security and significance comes from knowing God, our loving Provider. God is always our Provider. He never changes. But how He provides can change significantly. Solomon asked for wisdom and then was blessed to create enormous wealth. Jacob used a method with striped sticks to increase his flock Elijah was told to go to a starving widow and have her make her last loaf of bread for him. Joseph went from prison to prosperity. Those are some crazy ways. 

Now you may have just been handed a pink slip, watched your wealth lose a zero with a market crash, or have seen profits decrease in a recession. If our trust is in mammon, the power of riches, we’ll experience fear and anxiety. The spirit of mammon is exceedingly deceitful and drives fear and greed. On the contrary, when we know God as our only loving Provider, we’ll know that we know He will take care of us. We’ll listen for His next step and follow. We’re His sheep. We know His voice. We follow Him.

With 3NickelsU and the 3Nickels app, we want to empower people everywhere to live in financial freedom. That’s why we include a module on giving. We’re the only financial advice app out there that does. 3Nickels makes stewarding your money easy.  That’s our goal. If you don’t know where to start, just begin by downloading the app.