Experience the Joy of True Stewardship in Action
Your invitation has nothing to do with a new get-rich-quick multi-level marketing scheme. This invitation has everything to do with accepting and fulfilling your responsibility as a steward of your King. As an Authorized Wealth Distributor, your responsibility is to accept and distribute God’s unlimited resources that result in improving the physical and spiritual lives of others. God created you to bring redemption and hope to those you influence.
In Part One of my book, Intentional Living and Giving, I introduce the five principles of lifestyle stewardship. Here, you gain insight and knowledge, but without application, these principles will not impact your life or the lives of others. Biblical principles are great to know, but what good are they if you don’t practically apply them to your life? Many believers are sitting before excellent Bible teachers, soaking up the Word of God, but souring because they are doing nothing with what they are learning–except hoarding knowledge for themselves. Is this you?
The True Blessing is in the Doing….
The joy and blessing of lifestyle stewardship come when you are called upon to apply and act on biblical principles in everyday life. If you are not integrating scriptural teaching into daily life, breathing spiritually, and walking in the Spirit, you could easily miss your opportunity to thrive.
Are you aware that you have a job description?
Here it is! Check out your responsibilities. If you seriously own your job description, you will see each day as a mission.
Authorized Wealth Distributor Job Description:
I. Purpose: To manage effectively all that God chooses to entrust to me so as to bring praise and glory to His name.
II. Scope: Everywhere I go during my time on earth.
III. Responsibilities:
-To reflect God’s character, love and purpose to those I meet as an ambassador of His kingdom.
Standard of Performance: Act.
-To reproduce god’s love and power by multiplying His work in my life through the lives of others.
Standard of Performance: Act & inform.
-To reign on God’s behalf as He would reign, using His authority to advance His plan on earth.
Standard of Performance: Act & perform.
-To manage the time, talent and treasure which God has entrusted to me each day so ast to maximize His influence in this world.
Standard of Performance: Act & inform.
IV Expectations:
-To live in reliance upon the power of the Holy Spirit.
-To respond in obedience by trusting in God’s leading and direction
-To submit to God’s judgment and leadership
V. Reporting Relationship:
-I report to my heavenly Father.
-I am to work in harmony with other stewards so as to meet the responsibilities and expectations of my Father.
Seven steps forward….
I want to help you begin making practical applications of your job description. Just reading about the principles will not make you what you want to be.
You can take seven steps to begin applying the biblical principles of lifestyle stewardship. When you embrace these steps, you are ready to act as an Authorized Wealth Distributor:
- Give yourself and your possessions to God. Have you, as an act of your will, turned your life over to Him? Have you said, “Lord, I relinquish all rights to my life. Put me to work as a steward for Your kingdom.’ God is able to work only through the one who chooses to turn the control of one’s life over to Him.
Have you given your possessions to Him? Yes, I know, He already owns everything; but as an act of your will, have you intentionally turned everything over to Him? How about your health? Your job? Your family? Your hobbies? Your material accumulations? Your home? Your dreams? Your future? God can do a lot with a little if He has all of you.
- Recognize that God is your total and final supply of all you need. The post-Christian philosophy of today wants you to believe that you are the controller of your life. The world yells to you, “Work harder and you will experience success. Your job is your source of provision. Your leisure time is your source of rest and relaxation.” God is marginalized until you choose to recognize His role and your purpose.
It is because of God’s generosity to us that we live, breathe and have our being. Your income cannot make you happy. Your family and friends cannot provide you with contentment and joy. God, and only God, is your total and final supply of all you need.
- Count on Him by faith to empower you with the Holy Spirit. There is no one more miserable than a believer trying and striving to live the life of a steward in his own strength. God provided us the Holy Spirit so that we could be all that He planned for us to be. He planned for you to live a victorious Christian life. He planned for you to be an Authorized Wealth Distributor. He planned for you to have His power plugged into your life.
- Begin to give according to His directions. He has already provided you with hundreds of things that you can give. Now it’s a matter of you distributing what you have. God cannot provide you with more until you give away what you already have. As you give what you have, you are ready to receive more. God is then able to make a compensating deposit into your stewardship inventory.
Be alert for opportunities to give. There is no limit. To reap a harvest, however, you must consciously sow, and care for what you have planted. The harvest you are expecting will be the result of your care and intentionality.
- Thank and praise God for your privilege of distributing His wealth and resources. I am convinced that thanksgiving and praise unlock the gates of His storehouse more than anything else. Thanksgiving demonstrates our humility and gratitude for all He does for us. Thanksgiving is an act of worship that demonstrates we are walking by faith. Even when, from our vantage point, the situation may seem bleak, we are told: “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
- Expect results. You demonstrate faith when you watch with expectancy for the multiplied harvest of what you sow. Watch with anticipation. And be assured that God will return to you what you have given at the point of your need. You will also receive a multiplied return. God will likely surprise you by what He does because of your faithfulness Remember, Jesus promises:
“Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back” (Luke 6:38).
- Give again and again and again. Don’t play games with giving. Although there will always be a multiplied harvest, please, never give to get. Rather, give to receive to give to receive to give. God is not pleased with manipulators!
Think of giving and receiving as a continuous cycle. Never stop. What God gives to you is just what someone else needs. You have an unlimited inventory to draw upon. Use it freely. Your continuous giving will change your life as well as meet many specific needs. Be creative in your giving. Have fun distributing what God has given to you.
As you make a choice and begin to take these seven steps, you are joining a global association of believers whom I call Authorized Wealth Distributors. This is a network of Spirit-filled believers who choose, as an act of their will, to give freely what God gives to them to help meet others’ needs.
How about formally accepting the invitation by signing on as one of God’s Authorized Wealth Distributors? Are you ready to take the step of faith and “sign on”?
Authorized Wealth Distributors have been active in every culture since Adam and Eve had to move out of their garden retreat. As you study God’s Word, you will find hundreds of examples of men and women who choose to trust, obey, and give what they had to meet the needs of others. Some were famous, but most were average people like you and me. Take the woman in 2 Kings 4:1–7, for example.
AN AVERAGE WOMAN
In 2 Kings 4:1–7, you will meet a single parent with two young boys. Her husband died while attending seminary. He apparently left his wife with some outstanding debts. Because she was not able to pay the creditors, she was in jeopardy of losing her sons to slavery as compensation for the debt.
In desperation, she turned to God’s prophet, Elisha. She explained her dilemma and asked him what to do. Elisha asked what she had in her house—a rather strange question considering her circumstances.
She explained that all she had left was one jar of olive oil—not very much—but God took what she had and multiplied it. Elisha told her to gather all the pots and jars she could borrow from everyone in her neighborhood, take them into her home, and close the door. She obeyed.
Elisha told her then to pour one jar of her olive oil into another jar and set the filled jar aside. She was to continue filling the other containers until they were all filled. As she gave from the one jar she had, God took care of the multiplication. One container after another was filled. The more she gave, the more she had. Only when the last container was filled did the oil from the original container stop flowing.
From the abundant return of God’s unlimited inventory, she was able to sell the oil, pay her debt, and protect her boys from the threat of. As an act of her will, through faith and obedience, she became an Authorized Wealth Distributor for the Lord.