The Bible tells us that God is our provider. He made a covenant with Abraham that was passed down to all of Israel. A covenant to greatly multiply them. Meaning that God, not only will provide everything that is needed, but will do so in abundance. That same covenant is now accessed through Jesus Christ. Remember a covenant is a two way contract that both parties are responsible for. God is responsible to be provider and to multiply that provision for whomever He has a covenant with. The people in covenant with God are responsible to give their life to Him, trusting in God alone for their needs, obeying all that He says to do.
I will show you that there are consistently 3 Keys that everyone follows in order to walk in a covenant relationship with God and experience His financial blessing.
Key 1: Listen and seek God for His assignment, or call for you. God has a unique plan for all of us, but if we don’t follow God’s plan we won’t get a God result. You know it is God’s assignment for you when it is beyond what you can accomplish in your own strength. Dave Hodgson, who founded Kingdom Investors says your assignment is always “mission impossible.” (Dave has some amazing teaching on finding your assignment.)
Key 2: Carry out your call or assignment following God’s instructions. We always need to do things God’s way, so again stay close and pray, seek Him for His guidance.
Key 3: There is always a test to see what is really in our hearts, to make sure we can handle God’s provision and demonstrate His heart.
Now we will examine Abraham’s life in depth to see these 3 Keys in action. I have outlined the 3 keys from Abraham’s example below.
Abraham:
Key 1 The Assignment: to become a great nation that blesses all the families of the world. It was a mission impossible assignment, especially since Sarah was barren and they were old.
Key 2 Do it God’s Way: Go into another land, away from his family, walk the land, circumcise the men, etc.
Key 3 The Test/s: He is offered the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah, the final test was to offer up Isaac’s life to God.
Key 1:
First we find out that God gives Abram (his name before God changes it to Abraham) his assignment in Genesis 12. God says:
“Go from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you into a great nation,
And I will bless you, And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
We can see that his assignment is to become a great nation, in the land God is calling him to, so that all the families of the earth will be blessed. So, God asks Abram to leave his family, his father’s household, and go to an unknown land. Abram also brings his nephew Lot along with him. When Abram gets back to the land after hanging out in Egypt for a bit, God gives some instructions, He says in Genesis 13:17 “Arise, walk about in the land through its length and width; for I will give it to you.” So Abram moves his tent and walks. (This is part of Key 2, doing it God’s way)
Next, in Genesis 14 we come to Abram’s first test. Abram has to rescue Lot. So, Abram gathered his trained men and they overtook the bad kings who took not only Lot and his possessions but all the people and possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram and his troops conquered and took back all the people and possessions that were stolen. Now imagine, Abram and his trained men, literally have all the wealth, people and possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s gotta be enough to set them up for life. So, here comes the test, what does Abram do with all those people and possessions?
First he gives a tenth of all the wealth and possessions to the King of Salem, aka, Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7:4 it says Abram gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. This is the first time we find someone paying a tithe.
Next, the King of Sodom asks Abram to return to him only the people that he rescued. He also tells Abram he can keep all the possessions. So now Abram has every right to keep the other 90% of all that wealth. What does Abram decide to do?
He chose to give not only all the people back, but also gave back all the possessions, less getting paid back for what Abram’s trained men ate and also the portion that those trained men deserved to receive for helping Abram. So Abram keeps nothing for himself, nothing, whatsoever, and then makes this statement:
Genesis 14: 22 … “I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, so that you do not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
Abram passes the test and what happens next is even more amazing. In Genesis 15 we read:
15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” NKJV
Essentially Abram only wanted God to get credit for making him rich, he did not want to do it in his own strength nor the strength of someone else. This is a huge key to walking in covenant with God.
What does Abram get for trusting in God for wealth and not in the wealth itself? He got God as his reward. The wording means that God will be his protector and his exceedingly great compensation, wage or reward.
Abram finds himself in the position whereby God is the one giving Abram his paycheck. How would you like your boss to be completely trustworthy, always have your best interest in mind, super generous, and have unlimited funds and also say to you that all you need to do is trust Him and follow his instructions and then he will pay you an exceedingly great salary or wage AND give your descendants a huge tract of land.
However, Abram, knowing that his assignment is to become a nation, says to God, “thanks for all that wealth, but if you cannot give me an heir how is all the wealth gonna help me fulfill my assignment?” (That was my paraphrase.) God responds by showing him the stars of the sky and then promises that his offspring will even exceed that. You see when God is your reward everything that you need will be provided and provided in abundance.
Now we see the covenant come into play. God shows Abram the stars in the sky and tells him that his descendants will be as abundant as that. Abram believes God and then He makes a blood covenant.with Abram thereby fully committing to make good on His promise to Abram that he will be a great nation that blesses all the people of the earth.
Reading on in Genesis we know that Abram and Sarai try to do God’s assignment in their own way, in their own strength, which brings about Ishmael. Remember Key 2 is to follow God’s will His way, Ishmael was not God’s way and Abraham’s descendants have had to deal with that bad decision for all these centuries.
Even so, since God promised with a covenant to give Abram an heir, in Chapter 17 we see God change Abram’s name to Abraham.
Key 2:
God gives instruction to Abraham by asking him to circumcise all the males over 8 years old.
God also promises that the covenant made with Abraham, which includes God being Abraham's reward and making him a great nation, will also be passed down to all Abraham’s generations. God says in Genesis 17:7 “as an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you..”
Moving along, Abraham has Isaac and is given another test in Genesis 22. He is asked to sacrifice Isaac to God, literally to kill Isaac as a blood sacrifice. We know Abraham starts to go through with this, God interrupts and provides a ram to sacrifice instead. Then God says to Abraham:
Genesis 22:16 “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
God had already promised to greatly bless Abraham, and to also greatly multiply his seed as the stars of the heavens. Now God adds to that covenant another amazing promise.
"Abraham's seed will possess the gate of their enemies." This is saying that no enemy can stand in their way.
Lets' recap what we have gone over so far:
Abraham:
Key 1 The Assignment: to become a great nation that blesses all the families of the world. It was a mission impossible assignment, especially since Sarah was barren and they were old.
Key 2 Do it God’s Way: Go into another land, away from his family, walk the land, circumcise the men, etc.
Key 3 The Tests: He is offered the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah, the final test was to offer up Isaac’s life to God..
The Result: God promises to greatly multiply (meaning not just in number but also in greatness and stature) Abraham's seed, and they shall possess the gate of their enemies.
So we have seen how those 3 Keys played out in Abraham’s life, now let’s see how they play out in Abraham’s offspring. We will start at the time after Israel fled Egypt, the prior generation failed the test of spying out the land, now this generation is challenged to take the promised land.
Go ahead and read through Deuteronomy chapter 8.
Israel
Key 1 The Assignment: To go and take the land promised to Abraham. It was a mission impossible assignment because the land was filled with enemies that they did not have the natural strength and ability to conquer.
Key 2 Do it God’s way: Deuteronomy 8:1 "All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers." …3 “to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord.”
Key 3 The Test: Deut 8:16 In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to put you to the test, to do good for you in the end. 17 Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’.
Key number 1 is found in verse 3 we do not live by bread alone, i.e., by what we make with our hands, but we really live by everything that proceeds out of His mouth. We also see Key number 2, to do the assignment His way, in verse 1, saying we need to follow all of His commandments.
Finally we can see Key number 3, the wealth test, in Deut 8 verses 12-14 the Lord is warning the Israelites not to become proud as if they made that wealth in their own strength. We see in verse 16 that God put them to the test, God says to them “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’”
If we pass that test, to trust God for provision, to not rely on our own strength, or take credit for wealth and provision that God gives us. Then we will see God confirm His covenant by giving us His power to make wealth. We will see from Deut 28 what that power to make wealth looks like. We can also find out why God blesses His people.
Deuteronomy 28: 8 The Lord will command the blessing for you in your barns and in everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you…
12 The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless every work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to follow them carefully, 14 and do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or the left, to pursue other gods to serve them.
Look at verse 10, it says God offers these blessings so that, the people of the earth will see that we are called by the name of the Lord. Because God’s ultimate promise to Abraham was that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s seed.
We can see very clearly that God’s covenant with Abraham, which extended to all the 12 tribes of Israel, was something that provided for all the needs of His people and even blessed them above and beyond by multiplying their children, their land and their wealth.
We must ask the question, does this covenant is it’s blessings apply to Christians today? Or was that only for Israel back in the Old Testament, or maybe is it only for Jewish people today? Let’s look at what the New Testament says about Abraham's covenant. Remember that God told Abraham that it is "an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you."
Take a look at the passages below and we will find out that Jesus gave us access to God’s covenant with Abraham.
Galatians 3:14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise....26 For you are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
Ephesians 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace.
Hebrews 7:22 by the same extent Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
There are a lot more verses to prove my point, but yes in Christ Jesus we have access to that same covenant, the same promises for provision and wealth. Some may say, but wait a minute did not Jesus talk about not storing up treasures on earth? That money is somehow bad?
Matthew 6: 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth/mammon.” 25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?
What is Jesus saying in this passage? We must read this using the understanding of all that we learned above about God’s covenant and how He confirms it by giving us the power to make wealth. So is Jesus really saying never save up, or seek riches? That having a lot of money is bad?
Jesus starts out by saying don’t store up riches on earth. Then He states because what you treasure most will be what your heart trusts in most. Then He talks about how we see things, if we see things from a lens of darkness or light. In verse 25 we read the word “for this reason.” We can see from this that His bottom line is we do not need to worry about trying to get provision, we only need to trust in God, not in riches. Riches are not bad, only trusting in them is.
This is made clear to us when He says you cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot put your trust in riches and say you serve God. The Greek word for mammon literally means to have confidence in wealth, or the world's system for wealth, aka a spirit of mammon.. It can also mean a personification of wealth as in the enemy’s way of doing business. So just like the test Abraham went through, and then again the Israelites went through in Deut 8. We must learn that we cannot trust in our strength to make wealth or the pursuit of wealth, we must ONLY trust in God’s way of provision in order to receive God’s provision.
Jesus confirms this when he says in Matt 6:
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.
Jesus says to seek God’s kingdom first, which is God’s covenant provision for salvation (including health and wealth) and His right way of doing things, THEN you will get God’s provision.
Romans 14:17 says that “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” God has given us His Holy Spirit so we can have the mind of Christ and follow after Him, doing God’s will His way.
Jesus is not saying we should not keep any money or treasure, but He is saying that we should not seek these things first and pursue the world’s way of earning them, but if we seek His Kingdom first then the treasure we earn will be through His ways.
What is the conclusion then? Access to God’s original blood covenant with Abraham can only happen through Jesus Christ, He said “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.” It also says in Hebrews 7:22 “by the same extent Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”
Now Jesus gave us all an assignment, read what He said in Matthew 28:18
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We are all called and assigned to do our part in making disciples of all nations. This is how God is fulfilling Abraham’s covenant promise that in Abraham’s seed, which is Jesus, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Some assignments take place where you are at. Others are called to other nations. Either way the three keys remain the same:
Key 1. We have to find our “mission impossible” God assignment.
Key 2: Do our assignment God’s way, following His directions.
Key 3: When we are faced with a test, press into and trust God.
Here are some other examples of people in the Bible walking out the 3 Keys:
Noah
Key 1 The Assignment: save mankind and the animals from the flood, the challenge never been done before, there has never been rain nor has anyone built an ark before?
Key 2 Do it God’s way: Build an Ark, God gives specific instructions on how to build the ark.
Key 3 The Test: Noah has all the animals, which is equal to all the wealth of the world, and God says to let them go.
The Result: God makes a promise to not curse the land for Noah and also states that he can now eat animals whereas before it was all veggies, and makes a covenant, the rainbow, with Noah and mankind to never destroy the world again by rain,
Joseph:
Key 1 The Assignment: had a dream that his brothers would bow down and sun and moon as well. He knew he was called to lead, but that was mission impossible for him as he was given over by his brothers to be a slave
Key 2 Do it God’s way: God gives him the interpretations of dreams. Then God gives him a plan for how to store up the upcoming famine.
Key 3 The Test: He is tested in Potiphar’s house, he is tested in the prison, and also when his brothers come to Egypt and he does not take revenge.
David:
Key 1 The Assignment: Anointed to be king by Samuel The challenge: Saul is king.
Key 2 Do it God’s way: David kills Goliath, then David flees from Saul and men gather to him, David always seeks God before a battle as wins every time so his reputation builds.
Key 3 The Test: Twice David has an opportunity to justly kill Saul and become king in his own strength. David resists both times. Saul dies in battle and David becomes king.
Jesus:
Key 1 The Assignment: to be the savior of the world, yup mission impossible
Key 2 Do it God’s way: Jesus only does what He see the Father doing, heals the sick, raises the dead, goes where Daddy leads Him.
Key 3 The Test: Holy Spirit leads Him into the wilderness, then has to suffer and die on a cross.