In 16 years of helping clients in my banking and in my mortgage career, I’ve noticed a few things about the way people handle their finances. You might think that Christians have a clearer picture of how to handle their money than the rest of the world. Unfortunately, many Christians are in a worse position financially than many of their un-churched friends.

Being curious, I had to ask WHY? The conclusion God has revealed to me so far is that a higher than expected number of Christians operate their financial lives from A LIE. After careful study of the wealthy and super wealthy, I’ve noticed that the wealthy actually operate their financial lives from A LIE as well! In fact, everyone operates financially from A LIE.

You may be thinking you know the Lie. You may be thinking you have this all figured out. You might be thinking something along the lines of people living in debt and being in debt is a big lie! In fact, that is a very good line of thinking, however it is not A LIE I’m talking about. A LIE is keeping the poor poor and helping the wealthy get wealthier.

Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God.  He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead.

Ecc 5:19-6:2 (NIV)

There are two sides to every balance sheet that make up A LIE.  If you don’t understand this, you are the man who has great wealth that another man enjoys.  If you do understand this, you can be the man who enjoys your wealth.  Let’s look at one other passage before I explain this…

Give careful thought to your ways, You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat but never have enough.  You drink, but never have your fill.  You put on clothes, but are not warm.  You earn wages, only to put them in purses with holes in it.

Hag 1:5-6 (NIV)

Carefully consider this line of thinking.  You work extremely hard bringing in income.  You earn great salaries and profit in your business.  You live from paycheck to paycheck not quite sure why you find it difficult to afford groceries, electricity, gas for the car, or new clothes.  You earn wages that are leaking every month from your budget.  You don’t know what is happening to your earnings.  Your financial life is A LIE.  Here I’ll explain this clearly.

Everyone faces the same equations with different solutions in their financial lives.  We all have Assets, Liabilities, Income, and Expenses.  The reason you feel like you’re living from paycheck to paycheck is because you immediately started using credit to buy things when you felt like you could afford the payments.  You started using debt or liabilities to buy liabilities that created monthly expenses slowly draining your monthly income.  After adding several monthly expenses, you don’t have any income left to  thrive on.

The wealthy also operate in the same way. The difference in how they handle A LIE in their lives is simple.  They use Assets or Liabilities to purchase Assets that create Income for them.  They have the same choices available to them as the poor and middle class.  The difference is that they’ve learned how to stop the leaks in their finances and start filling rather than depleting their purse.

The Truth about A LIE is that the government and banks don’t want you to understand how debt works.  They make a lot of money brokering debt and selling you things of value using debt.  You owe the debts as your own Expenses producing Liabilities, and they own your debts as their Income Producing Assets.  It is time you take back control of your finances.  Stop volunteering for Slavery.

The Truth about A LIE is that God promised Israel that they would be the lenders of the world and not the borrowers (DT 15).  He said there should be no poor among us!

The Truth about A LIE is that clarity into this very simple concept has been known to quickly cause prosperity in those who yield this tool wisely.  When you get this simple truth, you’ll never look at investments the same.

Why do some people buy rental income producing real estate that produces a monthly loss in income?  They understand that rental properties are a good thing, but they still don’t understand A LIE.  Owning real estate that doesn’t produce income but rather, it produces expense is called owning a Liability.  This is not prudent investing.

Chances are, if you own expense producing real estate, you bought the property using a mortgage (liability) with very little down payment.  The mortgage payment (expense) is higher than what you can collect in rent.  Someone sold you a bill of goods that is unfortunate.  Equally unfortunate is that you bought it not knowing or understanding A LIE.

The relationship between Assets, Liabilities, Income, and Expenses is not difficult.  However, it is difficult to unlearn years of bad habits.  Understanding A LIE will help you make prudent investments and lead you to a life of prosperity as God promised!

A LIE will lead you to the Financial Freedom you so desire if you will master it!  It will provide you with the abundance a good steward in God’s household should reflect.  This is the very essence of Increasing to the point of true Legacy.

If you don’t master the concept of A LIE, you can participate in debt reduction programs to eliminate debt.  Great.  More than likely, you’ll end up in debt again, because you will invest in things others will tell you can gain, but they actually lose.  Why do I know this?  I’ve seen it all too often.

In fact, I have a coaching client who is excited about getting out of debt so they can potentially buy a nicer house, using a mortgage with a higher payment.  Ultimately, this idea would replace their credit card debt with a mortgage payment.  Potentially, they can stay stuck.  To Get Financial Freedom in God’s house, you must Get A LIE.  And that is the Truth!

God Bless You!

Related articles

• May 2012 Wealth Reports (zeropassiveincome.com)
• What Kind of Assets Should I Buy? (zeropassiveincome.com)
• The Truth About Taking Risks (proverbs66.com)
• Debt Reduction: A Blessing & A Curse (proverbs66.com)