Partner Letter - Apr 2001

Last month I shared a vision that the Lord gave me on the subject of believers going into personal debt financially. To refresh your memory, one day while I was reading the following verse the vision began playing across the screen of my spirit:

I saw a vision of the Lord calling his bondslaves early in the morning to receive their assignments from Him for the day. To one He said "Go and plow the south forty acres today." To another He said "Load wagons with grain and go to the dairy to feed my cattle today." Each of these two servants immediately responded with "Yes, Lord" and left the assembly of bondslaves to begin their work.

Then I saw the Lord come to the third bondslave and just as He was about to give him his assignment for the day, the bondslave spoke and said "My Lord, I will only be able to serve you for a small portion of the day for I have made myself servant also to another."

The Lord was surprised to hear this information. He did not speak. He continued to look at the servant with nothing but love in His eyes, but His silence prompted the bondslave to explain further.

The bondslave continued, "My Lord, I and my family have needs that you have not been providing. Therefore, I took it upon myself to borrow money from another master in order to have those things. I must now labor first in his fields in order to repay what I have borrowed with interest. I do love you though, Lord, and I want to serve you. It's just that I am now compelled to work in my other master's fields first. Whatever time I have left over after serving my other master, I will give to you."

With unending love still in His eyes, the Lord said,

Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

There are many reasons why we make decisions to take out loans that put us in personal debt. Some reasons for going into debt seem more justifiable than others. In this month's letter I want to discuss the most common reason why American Christians wind up as "servants to the lender" most of their lives. The man in the vision disclosed it very clearly when he said, "My Lord, I and my family have needs that you have not been providing. Therefore, I took it upon myself to borrow money from another master in order to have those things."

The sad truth is, most American Christians have gone into debt in order to acquire THINGS! We could begin categorizing these things into different groupings such as NECESSARY THINGS, NEEDED THINGS, and JUST BECAUSE I WANT THEM THINGS. It's easier for us to justify debt to acquire things we consider "necessary" than things we "just want to have." But the reason we wind up selling our lives as servants to the lender is the same in all three cases: Like the man in the vision, WE DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE LORD WILL PROVIDE THEM FOR US! Our mindset then becomes, "I have no choice. In order to have these things I MUST BORROW from the lenders."

In my own life, it was hard for me to accept the fact that (like the man in the vision), by my actions I was actually accusing the Lord Himself of not being a very good provider. Every time I chose to sell a portion of my life as a servant to the lenders, I did so because … in my heart, I was accusing the Lord of not providing those "things" for me. But what does the Word of God say concerning the "things" we need in this life?

Mat 6:31-34 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and ALL THESE THINGS shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. [Emphasis Mine]

None other than Jesus Christ Himself has told us about the GUARANTEE of the Father that as long as we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness … all of these THINGS shall be added unto us! So why do we continue to make the assumption that He will not provide those things? Why do we continue selling our future into bondage serving in the fields of the lenders?

Unless we truly discover the answers to these questions, we will continue to labor in the fields of "another master" month after month, year after year, decade after decade … until, without ever intending to, we wind up spending the vast majority of our lives serving mammon instead of serving God. We'll discuss this further next month.