Money is determining factor in our lives. Sadly most people live in from paycheck to paycheck. This story impressed me earlier this year and is all about going from the outhouse to the storehouse and I want to share it with you. It is from The Storehouse Principle by Al Jandl and Van Crouch, a book that has had a tremendous impact on my family and my teaching.
Do you sometimes feel caught in a dog-eat-dog world wearing Milk-Bone underwear?
That pretty much summed it up for me, when I first met Al Jandl in 1987. With both of us being businessmen and ministers, we had a good deal in common and a great deal of mutual respect so that over the years we have developed a friendship. However, it wasn’t until 1999 that Al shared with me the principle that has revolutionized both my ministry and corporate speaking outreach in the years since then. The financial peace it created for my wife and me has been a key element in our stability and growth.
Our conversation took place after I had just spoken at his church one weekend…..As he handed me a check for my honorarium, and one to cover my expenses for the trip, he asked me a question that I had always expected someone to ask. What I didn’t know, however, was that the answer I had so carefully prepared for that question over the years was the wrong answer.
“Van, I know you travel a great deal as a motivational speaker and minister. When you get a check like this, what do you do with it? How do you manage your money when it comes to you?”
“Al,” I responded almost automatically, “I have always thought someone would ask me that question. I want you to know that we tithe off the top of every check that comes in. Whenever we get a check, we take ten percent off the top and send it to other ministries we are partners with,” -at this point I named about six ministries that we give to regularly- “I do that with our ministry, our business, and our personal accounts. I want you to know that, beyond that, we are givers. All in all, we probably give around eighteen percent of our gross income. We are faithful givers to our partners.”
He looked at me for a moment, considering what I had said. I expected him to be impressed with my answer, but the expression on his face didn’t reflect the glowing approval I had envisioned. Finally, he said, “That is very commendable.” Then he paused again. “But let me ask you this: Of all these ministries you give to, where are you on the list?”
“What?” I replied. This was not a question I had ever expected to be asked. “What do you mean?”
So he repeated the question, “Of all these ministries you give to, where is Van Crouch Communications on the list?”
“Um, it’s not on the list.”
“Don’t you believe in what you do? Aren’t you a ministry?”
“Well, yes, we are a ministry, and I believe in what I’m doing.”
“Then why aren’t you on the list? Don’t you believe in what you are doing enough to give to it?”
“I didn’t know what to say. I stared at him somewhat blankly. What was he talking about? Giving to your own ministry? Wouldn’t that be selfish?
“Let me ask you this way,” he said when he saw that I had no response. “Do you want your ministry, your business, and your personal finances to be blessed?”
“Well, yes, of course!”
He paused again. “Well, why should God bless something that you don’t believe in? Van, if I want to send money to any of those other ministries you just mentioned, why do I need you? I could write a check to them myself. When I write a check to Van Crouch Communications, then I am writing a check to Van Crouch Communications, not a charitable organization that funnels my money to other ministries. Now if you want to give to those ministries, there is nothing wrong with that -it is even commendable -but do you give into your ministry? Do you have a storehouse for your ministry where you lay away some of every check that comes in so that you can be blessed?”
I am sure the confused look on my face was still there. “What do you mean?”
“Let me explain it to you this way: have you ever read Deuteronomy 28:8? It says, ‘The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’ Van, God said He was going to bless your storehouse. Are you saying you don’t have one?”
“No, I don’t have any storehouse -I didn’t know I was supposed to have a storehouse.”
“Then let me ask you another question, ‘How can God bless what you do not have?'”
I don’t know. What do you mean by a storehouse? Do you have a storehouse?”
“Van, you wouldn’t believe the storehouses we have. I know that for a fact, because I can’t believe them myself -I mean, I really have no idea how they got so large. All I do know is that, some twenty years back, we stumbled across a biblical principle and it revolutionized our lives. We have never been so blessed. When we started a storehouse it was if that was the key to opening heaven over us. Since then, we have never been in debt. We have paid cash for everything in our own lives and ministry: all the property you see here, all the buildings -even the church building and everything in it…. Van, I’m not bragging when I say that everything here is paid for. We don’t owe on any of it and we paid cash for all of it. I don’t like credit and I don’t like paying interest for things that don’t make me money. I have always been that way, maybe because I grew up so poor. I was poor all of my life until God showed me the principle from Deuteronomy 28:8 that He would command a blessing on my storehouses. I thought, ‘If God is going to command a blessing on my storehouses, then I had better have one! So I started one, and that was the beginning of all of this.”
How can God bless what you do not have? Go from the outhouse to the storehouse. Set aside resources and money to invest in your future and what God has created you to do -for what He has called you to do!
Photo credit: Stuck in Customs via photopin cc
