Dear Partner,

For the past two months we have been discussing the subject of debt. In a vision the Lord gave me several years ago, when He came to give assignments to His disciples He found that all of them were laboring in the fields of "another master." They had made themselves "servants to the lenders" by selling a portion of their lives into bondage in order to acquire "things" that, in their opinion, the Lord was unwilling to provide for them.

For a long time I have been wanting to do a teaching series on "How To Get Out Of Debt." Every time I would sit down to begin preparing the lessons, I would always get a check (a hesitation) in my spirit about doing so. I could not understand why for quite awhile, but then one day the Holy Spirit told me, "Debt is the fruit of discontentment. Unless the root of discontentment is dealt with, the people will be soon back into the bondage of debt again." Of course, when He said that I immediately thought of the scripture that says,

1 Tim 6:6-10  But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

What is the root of discontentment? Said another way, knowing the terrible price our Master Jesus Christ paid in order to redeem us from eternal damnation, what root could be so strong as to cause us to be willing to sell years of our life into the service of "another master?" We are given the answer in the above passage … the love of money!

Although some people may love money for money's sake, most Americans are not so much in love with money as they are in love with the "things" money can buy. Make no mistake about it, money has power. So much so, that Jesus gave us a strong warning not to spend our lives serving the false god of money (mammon):

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.

Wouldn't you agree that selling years of our lives in bondage to the "lenders" is one sure-fire way of serving mammon? Why do we do it? The number one reason most Americans are in debt is in order to acquire more and better "things." We sell ourselves to the lenders because we do not truly believe that our heavenly Father will provide those "things" for us. And, even if we do believe He will provide them, we don't know how to get Him to do it. But what did Jesus say about our heavenly Father's attitude regarding the "things" we need in this life?

Mat 6:8b … your Father knoweth what THINGS ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Not only does He know what things we have need of, we have His ironclad guarantee that He WILL provide those things as long as we have our life's priorities in proper order:

Mat 6:32b … your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these THINGS.
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these THINGS shall be added unto you.

Let's summarize up to this point:

1. We need things in this life.
2. The Father knows that we need things in this life.
3. Our Father wants our life's priorities to be about His kingdom and His righteousness.
4. Our Father does not want us to spend our lives serving any other master but Jesus.
5. We are promised that as long as we put His kingdom and His righteousness first place in our lives, all of the things we need shall be added to us.

So, what is missing? Since we have all of these promises, why do we feel compelled to go to the lenders and sell our lives to them? Notice again the capitalized words in this verse:

Mat 6:8b … your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, BEFORE YE ASK HIM.

Before we ask who? Our Father? Ask our heavenly Father for "things?" That's what Jesus said! Do you know how few people actually go to the Father and ask Him for the things they need in this life? Somehow that just doesn't sound spiritual, now does it? But is it more spiritual to go to the lenders and sell your life to mammon in order to get those same things? I would call that very unspiritual, wouldn't you? Notice what the apostle James said about this:

James 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, YET YE HAVE NOT, BECAUSE YE ASK NOT.

"Ye have not, because ye ask not." My, could it be that simple? It makes me wonder how many precious Christians are in debt to the lenders in order to acquire things simply because "religion" has taught them it is not proper that they should ask the Father for them. Jesus said,

John 16:23  And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

This is that day! God has made us His own children by the new birth. God is our Father! Jesus said that whatever we ask of the Father in His name, the Father WILL give it to us! Does that make God out to be some sort of giant vending machine in the sky that will automatically give us everything we could possible dream up? No, it does not. We have been given excellent guidelines regarding what to ask for, and how to ask for it. More about that next month.

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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