God Wants You Rich Part 3 with Ashley and Carlie Terradez. God’s will is for you to be rich. So, how does it work? God’s Word works for anyone who mixes it with faith. You will be empowered as God’s promises for prosperity are exposed throughout His Word.
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The primary scriptures explored in God Wants You Rich Part 3 are Proverbs 10:22, 2 Corinthians 9:8, and Deuteronomy 8:18.
Transcription
Ashley:
Did you know, God wants you rich? That’s right. In Proverbs 10:22 it says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow to it.” Find out how next.
Carlie:
Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life? Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley:
Hello, and welcome to Abundant Life. Hey, we’re so glad you’ve joined us today here in the lounge. My name is Ashley. This is my wife, Carlie. We’re excited because we have a great program for you. We’re talking about why God wants you rich. That’s right. It’s God’s will for you to be rich. And the key scripture we’re looking at is Proverbs 10:22. Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and he adds no sorrow to it.”
Ashley:
Also, we looked at second Corinthians 9:8 says, “For God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” We’re talking about, God wants us not just to have our own needs met. He wants us to have an abundance for every good work. He wants us rich.
Carlie:
And that’s more than enough.
Ashley:
More than enough.
Carlie:
That’s not just scraping by.
Ashley:
More than enough.
Carlie:
That’s not just living on just barely getting by street. That’s living on abundance avenue.
Ashley:
Say that again, Carlie. That’s good. I like that. Not just getting by street, and abundance avenue.
Carlie:
Come on.
Ashley:
Amen. And it doesn’t matter where you live, this program’s going I know around the world, literally. This will work for you. The word of God works. Any content, any situation, for any people group, I’m telling you, it works. Because I’ve seen it work too many times. And the word of God… I’m telling you, if you work it, the word of God will work. Praise God. And I’m just thinking of my friend, [inaudible 00:01:36], who was from Zimbabwe. Grew up literally in a two room shack. I mean, we’re talking about cinder block walls. We’re talking about his bedroom was under the kitchen table. He’d have to sleep under the kitchen table at night. That was how he grew up. We’re talking about poverty. We’re talking about in a situation where he was not rich. He didn’t experience that richness. He didn’t experience that wealth. And he was there and he got a dream of maybe one day having a bicycle, having a push bicycle.
Carlie:
I think he saw his neighbor. One of his neighbors had a bicycle, and he said, “One day when I’m a rich man, I’m going to have a bicycle.” And he just said it in his heart that he was going to believe the word of God. And when he started reading the word of God, it was talking about, God has an abundance for us. Jesus became poor that we might become rich. He got a revelation. The Holy Spirit gave him a revelation of God’s will for his life in the realm of finances. And no longer was that bicycle just a dream. He started to set his faith on it, and it changed his whole life, didn’t it?
Ashley:
Amen. He saw it in the word of God where it was God’s will for him to prosper. And in Zimbabwe, one of the poorest nations in Africa, he decided that he was going to put the word of God to work and, cut a long story short, now he’s living in a beautiful house, has nice cars. Actually has a church network, praise God, of churches, and is living a rich life. I mean, the man is rich and, able to help a lot of people.
Carlie:
His testimony is the word of God works, even in Africa.
Ashley:
Amen.
Carlie:
Because there’s a lot of poverty in Africa, obviously. And sometimes people exclude themselves from the promises of God, because of where they were born, where they grew up. They see themselves as at a disadvantage. Well, the truth is, the word of God is irrespective of person. It’s going to work for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re old, if you’re young, doesn’t matter what country you’re born in, doesn’t matter what language you speak. Anyone that will take the word of God and mix it with faith, apply it to their life, it’s going to work for you. It’s going to work for you. The only qualification for seeing the word of God work for you, in any area not just finances, is faith. You take the word of God, it says in Hebrews, and mix it with faith, and it’s going to profit you something.
Ashley:
Amen.
Carlie:
Amen. There is profit in the word of God.
Ashley:
Amen. That’s so true. We looked at some reasons here why God wants us rich. First, we looked at the word rich, meaning that it’s talking about possessions, it’s talking about having your needs met, it’s talking about having your needs met and having extra. People say, “Ashley, this is talking about being rich and God enriching you. I think it’s selfish.” Well, actually it’s the other way around. If we not believe in God to prosper us, if we not believe in God to give us resources, then that’s selfish. Because if God gives us extra, we can be greater givers, we can help more people. And God said to Abraham, “I’m going to bless you and make you great. And you’re going to be a blessing to many.” And that’s the same as second Corinthians 9:8 that we’ve already read. He’s going to give us an abundance for every good work.
Ashley:
So really, believing God to be rich is actually a godly thing to do. Believe in God to be poor is actually selfish. You’re not going to be able to help as many people when you put… You can still help some people, but when you have resources available to you, when you have an abundance, you can help more people. You can show more people the love of God. Money is really a tool.
Carlie:
Yeah.
Ashley:
It’s like a wrench. I say tool and people, they don’t understand me. T-O-O-L, tool. Money is a tool, and we can use it for the gospel. In Deuteronomy 8:18, it says, “Do not do not forget the Lord, your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, as he swore to your fathers this day.” Meaning that God gives us the power to get wealth, the power to be rich so that we can help God establish his covenant, so that we can actually spread the good news around the world.
Ashley:
We have an international ministry here. We have offices here in America. We have offices in Europe. We have offices in Africa. We literally travel around the world. I’ve been on 76 airplanes, I think, in nine months. I mean, we get around doing live events, preaching at churches, preaching at Bible schools. We do social media. We do these television programs. And we do all this, praise God, because we believe we’re called to do it, first of all. But we’re spreading the love of God around the world. We’re showing people the truth of who God is. God’s a loving God. He loves you unconditionally. He only has good for you. It’s his will for you to be healed. It’s his will for you to be set free. It’s his will for you to live a life of peace. It’s his will for you to prosper, and to have your needs met.
Ashley:
But it costs money to do all this stuff. It costs money to run a ministry like this. It costs money to spread the gospel. So really, God wants us to have extra so that we can help more people. And some of the points we looked at and we made last time was, God loves you, and he wants to be your provider. God loves to be a provider.
Carlie:
Jehovah-jireh .
Ashley:
Jehovah-jireh. In Genesis 22, where Abraham needed to provision, God provided for him, and revealed himself. One of the seven names of God was God, your provider, Jehovah-jireh. God is your provider. He loves to provide for you. Jesus said in Matthew six, “Your father knows you have need of these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things.” Talking about riches. Talking about what you’re going to wear, what you’re going to eat, what you’re going to drink. Those natural things will be added to you. So it’s God’s will for you to be rich, he loves you, and he’s your provider. He wants to provide for you.
Ashley:
The second thing we looked at was that it’s part of… It’s always looked at as a blessing. So being rich is always looked at it as a blessing. Having extra, having your resources met, is a blessing. Whereas not having enough and having a shortfall is always described as a curse. Now, if you experience lack at the moment, if you haven’t got enough to make ends meet, if your month is longer than your paycheck, or however you want to determine that, we’re not saying that you’re cursed. Galatians 3:13, “Jesus redeemed us from the curse.” There is no curse anymore for you to believe, but it still describes a curse in the old Testament. Lack and poverty was always described as a curse, whereas abundance and provision and having more than enough, being rich-
Carlie:
It’s a blessing.
Ashley:
… was always looked as a blessing.
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley:
And it’s religion that’s messed that up. It’s religion that’s actually twisted that. I believe it’s Isaiah 5:20 says, “They call good evil, and evil good.” It’s a little bit like healing. The religious people and people that have got this back to front… I had one person say that religion is like spiritual dyslexia. And that makes a lot of sense really. Religion’s like spiritual dyslexia.
Carlie:
They read things in the word and get them back to front.
Ashley:
They’ll take something that’s good and actually turn it around for evil. They’ll take a promise in the word of God and turn it around so it’s actually the reverse.
Carlie:
It’s true.
Ashley:
So religious people will say, “If you’re sick, maybe God’s teaching you something. Maybe it’s God’s will for you to be sick. Maybe it’s bringing honor to God.” That’s incorrect. Hopefully you know that by now, if you’ve been watching this program for any length of time. It’s God’s will for you to be well.
Carlie:
Come on.
Ashley:
God’s a healer. That’s one of the seven redemptive names of God. He’s God, your healer. He heals. Jesus healed. Thus, when Jesus was on the earth, he was either going to heal someone or on his way back from healing someone, or healing someone. I mean, he healed everyone that came to him.
Carlie:
Amen.
Ashley:
So God is the healer. Now, the religion will turn that around and say, “Well, maybe sometimes God’s trying to teach you something.” No, healing is always described as a blessing, health and healing. Whereas sickness and disease was always described as a curse. It’s the same with riches and poverty, it’s always described that way. It’s only religion that’s twisted it around. So really, it’s godly to have money. It’s godly to have resources so you can help more people.
Carlie:
It is. The problem is, I think, sometimes people take their experience and they try to get that to back up their lack of manifestation. And this applies to anything. So if people say, “Well, we don’t believe in healing. I don’t believe in healing.” Why is that? “Well, because I’ve never seen anyone healed. Because I haven’t seen anyone healed in my church. Because Auntie Flo, she died.” And they’ll start to use their lack of experience of something to backup their incorrect belief.
Carlie:
People do the same thing with finances, “I just don’t believe it’s God’s will for me to prosper.” Well, why not? “Well, because I’m poor.” And here’s the fact. If we want to see the word of God manifest in our life, we’ve got to start believing what the word says over what we feel about it, over what our experience tells us. It says, as you mentioned, Deuteronomy 8:18, “God gives us the power to get wealth.” Well, if you back a little bit further up there, he’s talking to the Israelites here in verse three, and it says, “He humbled you and let you suffer hunger. He fed you with manna,” This is talking about when he led them in the wilderness, “which you didn’t know, or your fathers know that he might make you know that man doesn’t live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”
Carlie:
It’s actually the word of God that gives us the power in this life to prosper, the word of God, when we speak it out of our mouth. Some of the reasons we aren’t seeing that the very things of God manifest, the promises of God manifest in our life is because of what comes out of our mouth. “I don’t believe in, I don’t believe in, I don’t see it. I just can’t get ahead. I can’t get by.” Well, our mouth can be our own worst enemy.
Carlie:
But look at verse four here, it says, “Your clothing…” He’s talking about the Israelites when they were wandering in the wilderness. The whole time they were wandering around, it says, “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these 40 years.” When God provides for us, he does it, and he doesn’t run out. He does it. And he there’s no sorrow with it. The whole time the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness they didn’t go hungry, they didn’t go sick and they didn’t go poor. How much more of a covenant have we got now because of Jesus than they even had back then?
Ashley:
We’ve got far great covenant than they had then.
Carlie:
Come on.
Ashley:
That’s powerful. And that leads me to my next point. It’s actually part of the atonement. It’s actually part of the atonement. For us to receive God’s provision, it’s part of the atonement. Jesus paid for it. Second Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich…” Jesus was rich. Amen. We’re going to cover this. Okay. It might not be this program. We’re going to cover this, the fact that Jesus was rich. Now, he was definitely rich in heaven. And in heaven, they have streets paved with gold. They use diamonds.
Carlie:
It’s pretty rich.
Ashley:
They use diamonds as the foundations of the walls, right? Use pearls as gates. So the heavens are rich. There’s no lack in heaven. There’s no lack of resources in heaven. Everything’s provided for in heaven. So Jesus was definitely rich in heaven. But when he came to earth, he says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes…” That’s for my sake and for your sake, for our sakes, he became poor. He experienced poverty so that us through his poverty might be made rich. That’s why it’s a spiritual truth today that if you’re born again, if Jesus is your Lord and savior, you are rich. You’re already rich.
Ashley:
You might say, “Ashley, I’ve got no money. I’m in debt. I’m poor.” It doesn’t matter, you’re rich. Just like we could proclaim, you know what, you’re righteous. Second Corinthians 5:21, “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.” Why? So that we could be made the righteous of God. So here’s the deal. You might be sinning right now. You might be doing acts of sin, but if you’re born again, your spirit, you’re righteous. It’s a spiritual truth. And you said it so eloquently last program about a spiritual truth. Say it again, Carlie.
Carlie:
I don’t remember what I said.
Ashley:
You can’t let a natural-
Carlie:
No, a physical condition-
Ashley:
A physical condition-
Carlie:
It doesn’t determine our spiritual position.
Ashley:
A physical condition does not determine your spiritual position. And your spiritual position in Christ is that you are righteous, you are healed and you are prospered. You are prospering. You are rich. Amen. Because Jesus became poor so that you might become rich. It’s a great exchange. It’s the gospel. Jesus came down and did all the work for us. And now we get to pick up the spoils. We get the goodness of God. Praise God. He experienced sickness on the tree. He went to the cross and experienced sickness. He took stripes on his back.
Ashley:
First Peter 2:24, “He took on disease and sickness and pain and suffering on the cross.” Why? So that we could take his health and healing, and not have any… The human body, when it’s 33 years old, it’s at its its peak. It’s perfect. Jesus’ body was perfect. It had nothing wrong with it. But when he went to the cross, he experienced pain. And when he went through that suffering, he took on those diseases and those sicknesses. I’ve heard it said that every sickness and disease could be boiled down to 39 root causes medically. That’s what they said, medically.
Ashley:
What’s funny that Jesus took 39 stripes on his back. I don’t believe that’s a coincidence. I believe he took on every disease, and therefore we can take his health and healing. It’s the great exchange. And it’s the same with righteousness. He took on our sin. Jesus committed no sin. He didn’t commit any sin, but he was made sin. He experienced our sin. He was made sin so that we could take his righteousness.
Ashley:
And it’s exactly the same with financial provision. He became poor so that we could be made rich. He became poor so that we could be made rich. It’s the great exchange. The spiritual truth right now for you is that you are rich. If you’re born again, you’re rich. If you don’t see it naturally yet, don’t worry. Hold on. Once you start believing it you’re going to start seeing it manifest. But right now the truth is, God has made you rich.
Ashley:
Proverbs 10:22 is where we started this, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich. And he adds no sorrow to it.” Amen. We’ve got lots more to share on this. Praise God. But I want to show you some exciting things that happened in Terradez Ministries. These things are going to empower you in the promises of God. Praise God. So we’ll be right back.
Speaker 3:
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Ashley:
Hey, we’ve been looking at the fact that God wants you rich. In fact, if you’re born again today, you’re already rich, spiritually speaking. You’ve already got the prosperity of the Lord on the inside of you. Whether you’ve you seen it in the natural or not, their natural circumstances have to change.
Carlie:
Yeah, amen.
Ashley:
We’re looking at the reasons why God wants us rich. The facts are, we’ve gone through a few points here, but God loves you. God loves you, and he wants you to have provision. He wants to provide for you. The second thing we looked at is that being rich is always looked at as a blessing. Having your needs met is always looked at as a blessing. It’s always a blessing to have more than enough so you can help more people. And the third reason is, is that so he can establish his covenant. Deuteronomy 8:18, “He’s going to establish his covenant.” And we’re on the fourth reason here, which is it’s part of the atonement that Jesus paid for. It’s part of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. He gave us his righteousness. He gave us his health and healing. He gave us his peace. And he gave us his provision, his riches. And that was from second Corinthians, 8:9. But we have a question-
Carlie:
Yeah, we do.
Ashley:
… from a viewer. So let’s have this question.
Carlie:
So this is from Ruthie, and she wrote in to say, “I don’t go to a physical church, but there are several ministers that I watched religiously. How should I figure out who to tithe to? And should I split up my tithe and divide it or rotate it each month?”
Ashley:
That’s a good question. Let me say a few things. First of all, I do believe in the tithe. I know people say, “Oh, it’s under the law.” No. Genesis 14. Okay. There was Abraham tithe to [inaudible 00:16:22]. Genesis 28, Jacob tithed. Okay. Those two instances were before the law. There was no law then.
Carlie:
The argument that people say, the reason why they don’t believe in the tithe anymore is because they say it’s part of the law and Jesus fulfilled the law. But your point is before the law.
Ashley:
Tithing was a principle before the law.
Carlie:
It was outside of the law.
Ashley:
Giving was a principle. Cane and Abel gave. Giving was established well before the law. Giving was something that was always there. And giving a tenth was already established, because Abraham did it in Genesis 14, and Jacob do it in Genesis 28. And those two were before the law. Yes, tithing became part of the law. And here’s the deal. When it was part of the law, there was a curse if you didn’t tithe. Ours is gentle. the law was never for us anyway. So we’re not under the law. You’re definitely not under the law if you’re born again. So you’re not under the law anyway, but the blessings of tithing are still there. They’re still present.
Carlie:
Yeah. Why would you want to miss out on the blessing of God?
Ashley:
Well, this is interesting. They say the tithe… Malakai three, a curse of a curse. I remember I was preaching this in a church once. And I said, “If you’re not giving, you’re robbing God.” And these old guy went, “Amen, you God robbers. I’ve been telling you, you God robbers.” I was like, “Whoa, hang on a bit.”
Carlie:
Did he stand up and shake his fist?
Ashley:
I know. Not quite, but almost. I was like, “Hang on, hang on. I’m not finished. You’re robbing God of the opportunity of blessing you because you’re not giving him permission to bless you.” And even when tithing was under the law, the emphasis was on God getting more to us. Think about this. I’ll open up the windows of heaven, I’ll pour out a blessing that you cannot contain.
Carlie:
Malakai chapter three.
Ashley:
Malakai chapter three. So tithing was always about God getting more to his people anyway. It wasn’t about God taking from us. God’s the biggest giver. He’s not the taker. He can’t take. His very nature is to give, so he can’t take. He’s receiving things so that he can bless it and multiply it back to you. So anyway, the first part of this question is tithing. I had to say that, because you just say tithing people say, “Oh, I don’t tithe.” No, tithing is still a principle that I go by. It’s the bare minimum. It’s the starting place of giving. And I believe that God set it up that way because the tithe is the same. Whether you own a million dollars or whether you own $10, 10% is 10%.
Carlie:
It’s a very fair system.
Ashley:
10% is 10%. Yeah. So it’s fair across the board. It’s a great principle. I believe God set it out for our own hearts so that we’d know where to start. So I do believe in tithing. We tithe, and it’s too late to convince us otherwise.
Carlie:
Amen.
Ashley:
We have documents. You can keep your documents. People send us documents. Most of the people that I know that argue about the tithe are struggling financially. Why do I want to listen to you? You’re struggling financially. Anyway. So, we tithe-
Carlie:
The question from Ruth is-
Ashley:
I’m going to answer the question. Don’t worry.
Carlie:
The question from Ruth is-
Ashley:
I am going to answer the question.
Carlie:
… “How should I figure out who to tithe to if I don’t have a physical church?”
Ashley:
I will ask the question, but I have to talk about tithing, otherwise people aren’t going to listen to me. I believe in tithing. I believe ideally that tithe should go where you’re fed. And really, you should be fed by your local church. So if you have a good local church… If you need to find a local church, on our website we have a list of churches there that we’ve been to. We know the pastors personally, and you can go there now. Now, I understand there’s not churches everywhere that teach the truth that are good churches, so it may be difficult for you to get to a good life giving church.
Carlie:
In a physical location.
Ashley:
In a physical location, what Ruth is experiencing. So I would say tithe where you’re fed, tithe where you’re been fed by the word of God. Now, usually the traveling ministers… We’re a traveling ministry. They’ll tell you, tithe to the way you’re fed. And the pastors will say tithe to the local church. Well, if you’re fed by a local church that’ll fix that, but that’s in an ideal world. And I’m realistic. I know that there’s not always churches out there teaching the truth. So I would suggest you get fed by a ministry. Ruth said she listens to several ministries or gets fed by several ministries. So I would say, ask the Lord, but I don’t have a particular problem with you giving your tithe to ministries where you’re fed.
Carlie:
Or join an online church.
Ashley:
I tell this to people,.if I’m preaching at their church, that means if I’m appreciating your church, it’s probably because it’s a good church because otherwise I wouldn’t go there.
Carlie:
He wouldn’t preach to it otherwise.
Ashley:
I do turn down a lot of invitations. I’m sorry. That’s what it is. Anyway, if we’re at the church really you should tithe the church. You can give us offerings extra. But if you go to a good church that actually feeds you, then tithe there and then give offerings. It’s tithes and offerings, remember, in Malakai three, it’s not just tithes, it’s tithes and offerings. But I’ve got no problem if you’re tithing to a ministry that feeds you. So wherever ministry is feeding you, you can tithe that ministry, give a percentage.
Ashley:
The main thing is, you’re giving regularly, you’re giving systematically, and you’re doing it as unto the Lord, your trust in God. It’s really God who receives our tithes. It’s Jesus that receives the tithe. So you can do that. So Ruthie, I think it’s fine for you to tithe to where you’re being fed. And if you want to split that, you can. But 10% is 10%. It’s amazing that people say, “Well, it doesn’t really count.” I had one person say to me, “The tithe doesn’t really count if you sell land or sell houses.” I’m like, what? I was like. “Yes, it can. You make $100,000 on a property deal, tithe.” I’ve done that. It’s fun. The bigger the deal, the bigger the tithe check.
Carlie:
That’s because you’re a cheerful giver.
Ashley:
I do. Well, there you go. Second Corinthians 9:7. Praise God. Cheerful giver.
Carlie:
We’ve been talking about how giving, and prosperity rather, is part of the atonement.
Ashley:
Amen.
Carlie:
I was just thinking, often we use Isaiah chapter 53 to talk about healing, but let’s just look at this. We’re probably real familiar with Isaiah chapter 53. It starts out in verse three. It’s describing Jesus, “He’s a man despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” And it goes on. I want to read down to verse five. Okay. It says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.” He took our sin, our iniquities, our transgressions upon him on the cross. But look at the next part, it says, “The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed.”
Carlie:
Now, in the original text, in the Hebrew, that word peace was Shalom. You may have heard that. Jewish people often greet each other with that. This word peace, it means so much more than just to be at rest, or just to have calmness, at peace in your life. It means this, it means rest for sure, but it also means health, happiness, wholeness, peace, safety, favor, friendship, and prosperity. Jesus literally paid for our prosperity at the same time as he paid for our iniquities, our sin, our peace, our friendship with God, and our healing, our wholeness. In order for us to experience the wholeness that Jesus paid for on the cross pice, prosperity cannot be separated from that.
Ashley:
Amen. That’s powerful.
Carlie:
That’s powerful.
Ashley:
In the new Testament equivalent of that is the word sozo, which means that the same thing as well. It means to be healed, to be whole, to be complete, and to be prospered. Praise God. So that’s the truth right there. It’s part of God’s atonement. Jesus paid for it. Second Corinthians 8:9, Jesus paid for it. So why would you not want to receive it? If Jesus paid for something, I want to receive it. I don’t want to let Jesus pay for something and ask not to receive it. I think of gifts. If someone gives you a gift, if you don’t even unwrap it and don’t even receive it, that’s sad. The person’s already paid to give you that gift, so why won’t you want to receive it? It’s almost offensive if you don’t receive it. It’s a waste if you don’t receive it. So Jesus paid for it, we need to receive it.
Ashley:
And we need to receive the fact that Jesus wants us rich. Jesus wants you rich. I’ve got another reason here is… We’ve already looked at it’s part of the atonement. Psalm 103 is a great scripture as well. We ain’t got time to go there, but Psalm 103 is a great [crosstalk 00:23:18].
Carlie:
“Bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits.”
Ashley:
“Bless my son forget not all his benefits.” It talks about there how he forgives all our sins, he heals all our diseases, and he satisfies our mouth with good things. And if you study that out, that means he provides for us. He gives us everything we need. Praise God. So it’s part of the atonement.
Ashley:
And the fifth reason I got here is that, so we’ll be able to give. When we prosper, when we are rich God’s way, we’re able to give. You can’t give if you haven’t got to give in the first place. You can only give what you’ve already got.
Carlie:
You miss out on the joy of giving.
Ashley:
So you miss out on the joy of giving. God wants to bless you. God wants to make you rich so you can be a giver. This is at least a whole program’s worth here, so we’re not going to be able to go into depth, but I just want to read you a few scriptures. This is Ephesians 4:28. This is Paul speaking. And he says, “Let him who stole steal no longer.” So hang on a minute. He’s saying here that people that aren’t working, that aren’t giving are stealing. Apostle Paul said it.
Carlie:
What are they stealing?
Ashley:
He said it right here. It’s not me. This is a Apostle Paul. He’s the author of grace, right? It’s not me. This is the Apostle Paul. He said, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, that which is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” The reason why we should be working, the reason why we should be producing, the reason why that God gives the power to get wealth, is so that we can have something to give.
Ashley:
Now, it’s also to provide for us so we can pay our rent, pay our mortgage, put food on the table, all those things. But really, the number one thing in our line of budget should be giving. If you just write out a budget for the month and watch the priorities on that, a lot of people say, “Well, the priorities, you got to pay your bills, or you got to put food on the table,” and things like that. I understand that. We haven’t done everything perfectly, but from day one when we got married, we were like, we’re going to have giving as number one on our budget. We’re going to have giving the most important thing.
Ashley:
And you know what? I’ve been around a little bit. I’ve never had anyone come to me and say, “Ashley, help me. I lost my job. My business is going down. How am I going to give? I don’t know how I’m going to give. I’ve been up all night worrying. How am I going to give?” Never had that yet. I really haven’t because people are worried about paying their bills or buying food or putting gas in their car or whatever. They’re not worried. That’s not the top of their budget.
Ashley:
And I’m telling you, when you put God first… I’ve already read Matthew 6:33, “Seek first, the kingdom of God.” When you put God first place, when you get serious about your giving, God’s going to get serious about your getting. And I’m telling you, when you work with your hands in order to give, when you have giving as your focus, when you say, Lord, I’d love to give this amount, start dreaming and say, Lord, I’d like to one day give this amount every week as a tithe.
Carlie:
Come on.
Ashley:
I’d love to be able to bless this missionary. I’d love to be able to bless this ministry. I’d love to be able to give this much to my church. When you start having those dreams, I’m telling you, when you start thinking like that… We used to write out checks, and don’t give them.
Carlie:
Faith checks.
Ashley:
Faith checks. Don’t give those. No one wants a faith check. That’s a faith check. Cash it in a few years.
Carlie:
It does something to your soul, doesn’t it?
Ashley:
It does something.
Carlie:
It hits you on the inside of you. And I know this. If you get addicted to giving, God’s going to supply your habit, right? I mean, that’s a good habit to have.
Ashley:
Amen. You get addicted to giving, God’s going to support your habit. That is good. Amen. So we used to dream about giving large amounts of money. And guess what? Praise God. What happened was we was able to go into business and divot things and was able to actually make those amounts of money to be able to give. Praise God. And was able to give more than we’ve ever given before. And those large checks that we wrote out, it was just a few years later was able to actually give some of those checks away. We haven’t arrived, but we’ve left. We’ve got excited about giving some of the offerings we’ve been given. Praise God. To be able to help ministries, help missionaries. We built a Bible school in Asia. We’ve done things for our finances that has blessed people. And I’ve seen, there’s something when you realize that the reason why God wants to prosper you, the reason why God wants to make you rich, is so that you can give. Praise God.
Ashley:
He said to Abraham, “I’m going to bless you and make you rich and make your name great so that you can be a blessing.” So I’m telling you, God wants you rich today. It’s God’s will for you to be rich. Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich. And he adds no sorrow to it.” So it’s God’s will for you to have an abundance. It’s God’s will to have your needs met and have an abundance to give to others. Praise God. Start believing that today, and you watch what can happen. You can receive it. Amen. Your natural circumstances will have to line up. Praise God.
Carlie:
Amen.
Ashley:
Well, thanks for being with us today. We’ve really enjoyed your company. Amen. Here in the lounge, but we’re going to be back real soon. And remember, until next time don’t just settle for living a normal life when you could be living the abundant life. We’ll see you soon.