It’s not often I can recommend a Christian book about money…because most of them fall into 1 of 2 categories: those that are all about stewardship & responsible handling of money (with an emphasis on rules) and then those that lay out a sort of “something for nothing” where God will give you X (wealth) if you do Y (pray the right prayers).

We rarely find the book that focuses on how Christians should handle, relate to, and think about wealth.

But this book, Money And The Prosperous Soul, is such a book.

www.brentwehmeyer.com/ProsperousSoul

Early in the book, author Stephen De Silva references a popular quote from C.S. Lewis:

“He (the devil) always sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites…He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.”

This is quote defines the theme which runs throughout the entire book. That’s not to say this is a book about a moderate, benign view of a Christian’s relationship with wealth, some sort of middle ground between a poverty mentality and the misguided “prosperity gospel.” This book doesn’t present compromises as truth.

…Rather, it is written in a way that it takes you “straight between both errors” through analyzing and detailing the poverty spirit (lack of expectancy that the Lord can and will meet ALL of our needs) and Mammon (money as an idol – the love of money).

De Silva shows how both of these two extremes have terrible consequences in our lives. He then lays out precisely how entwined our external wealth & internal wealth mindsets are. Simply stated, we get what we think about…

“As a man thinks within himself, so he is.”

De Silva spends a good amount of time highlighting many of the ways our thinking can become warped when it comes to finances, as well as providing some tools (prayer and declarations of truth) to destroy old ways of thinking and replace them with truth. This is the real strength of the book, and the portion which will change unhealthy thinking and relating to money. You owe it to yourself to not just read this book, but to take the time to get in front of Father God and ask Him to show you where you’re thinking needs to change.

This book is like a road map – only as good as your willingness to read it and apply the advice it gives you.

Money And The Prosperous Soul is not a self-help book, a financial planning book, or a get-out-of-debt book. It also doesn’t preach the deceptive “prosperity gospel.” At its core, it’s a book about discipleship, about getting our hearts and minds in alignment with the Lord’s.

We honestly believe that if you read this book and apply the truth found within it, if you’re willing to pray and let the Lord change anything in your thinking that isn’t His way of thinking, you will see your financial reality shift.

All the budgeting and financial advice books in the whole world won’t do that for you.

Pick up your own copy today, here:

www.brentwehmeyer.com/ProsperousSoul

Part 1: Finding Your Purpose

We’ll often get temporarily motivated to accomplish some sort of achievement, and we will set our goals to get there, only to find a few days or weeks later, we’re right back in the rut we started in.

Why is that?

Why do many people find it so hard to keep working at their goals, keep going in the same direction, keep improving and developing each day?

It’s usually because of an inner battle between our conscious and unconscious minds.

You may be telling yourself in your conscious mind that you want to achieve certain things, have success, make a lot of money, etc. …but if your unconscious mind – which is filled with habits and conceptions all built up over the years of your life and the experiences you’ve had – is not in alignment with that, it will do everything possible to pull you off track and bring you back to where your subconscious mind is comfortable with you being.

You see, you can even learn new information, get new ideas, and although those things are vital, they aren’t enough in themselves to transform us. Our very thoughts & thinking must be made new. As Romans 12:2 states,

“…transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

We live from the inside out. Our behavior will permanently change only when our minds change.

So, you first need to work through the faulty, misguided beliefs about money and success that are in your mind – planted by Satan’s tricky deceitful ways, as we’ll cover in the next few blog posts and videos. Once you get your beliefs “fixed”, you can work on finding your purpose.

Your purpose is in you like grain in wood. You can cover it over with paint or stain, and it gets damaged, worn, and weathered from the daily grind of life, but the grain – the very makeup and core – of the wood remain the same.

Your purpose may be hidden, beat into submission, covered over, or hidden away, but it’s still there.

De Silva puts it so perfectly in his book when he states,

When you discover what your purpose truly is, it’s like plugging yourself into an electrical receptacle. You discover an inexhaustible reservoir of energy and courage. Struggles may arise, but they are defeated. Distractions and temptations become irrelevant.

If you simply give your full attention to the reality of the life of the Son of God within you, growing into a mature expression of your purpose, it gradually becomes impossible to live with small vision, low expectations, fear, or negative self-worth. Likewise, the appeal of a lifestyle governed by an ascetic brute-force regimen for controlling your financial life will fade away entirely.

Here’s a key point to take note of…

Don’t confuse your PLANS with your PURPOSE.

• Our dreams are just many of the ways we express our core purpose
• A plan can be dashed by circumstances, timing, or lack of resources, but purpose can not.
• If your dream can be dash, it is because you haven’t reached high enough; you have mistaken a plan for your purpose.

When you find your purpose in life – what makes you tick, what makes you feel blessed and grateful each morning to be able to wake up and do that thing you love doing – everything else will fall into place.

Yes, you’ll still have distractions, obstacles, confusion at times, and setbacks, but they’ll all be irrelevant and mere blips on the radar screen compared to your purpose that is driving you forward!

Tomorrow I’ll be back with Part 2 to dig into the first of 2 spirits that Satan uses against us, the Poverty spirit. If you’re a Christian who has been raised to think money and success are evil, and have been taught that because the Bible says to “be poor in spirit”, you’ve been misguided, based on a error in believing to be “poor in spirit” means the same as a “poverty spirit”.

Come back tomorrow to find out exactly what I mean!

Money And The Prosperous Soul – Part 2 – The Poverty Spirit

For a way to reach your goals and dreams by earning an income with your own online business, check out my free 7-day video series, Your Online Business Jumpstart.

“If you do what you love, and love what you do,
you’ll never work a day in your life.”