ARTICLES

DATE:  13 February 2003

SPEAKER:  Pastor Tayo Adeyemi

TITLE:  Rebuking the Devourer

TEXT:  Proverbs 10:15

God makes it abundantly clear in the pages of the bible, that it is His desire to bless and prosper his children financially. Deuteronomy 8:18; Psalm 35:27; Isaiah 48:17; 3 John 2.
But if the truth be told, most believers are just barely getting by financially. The most amazing thing is that this condition has very little to do with income. People who earn a lot of money still find that they are broke. So the problem is not with how much is coming in, but with what we do with it. It's not what is coming in, it's what is going out.
Add to this the problem of debt, and we have a great percentage of God's people who are just hanging on by the skin of their teeth.
An average wage earner spends 25% of their time working for the government. That is two out of every eight hours. The average person spends a minimum of 20% of their wages paying off debts. This means that in every eight hour day, 1 hour 36min is spent working for the creditor. This is one day every week. 50% of divorces are related to unmanageable debt. No wonder the bible says the borrower is servant to the lender - Proverbs 22:6-7.
Most parents raise their children in homes with 25 to 30 year mortgages. "Mortgage" by the way means "death grip". They take those children to school in cars bought on a 5 year hire purchase agreement. They buy the children's school uniforms with credit cards and wash them in washing machines bought on the store's finance programme. The kids beds, furniture and television are all purchased on different store cards. They even do their homework using encyclopaedias and computers that are bought on credit.
The child is born into a family that is in debt and never sees the family come out of debt. Is it any wonder that as soon as he grows up and starts making his own financial decisions, not only is he forced to take several student loans, he buys his first car on a loan, starts his career with about four or five credit cards and very quickly launches into his own ocean of red ink.
But God wants you to be financially free. Deuteronomy 15:6, John 8:36. You are not really free until you are financially free. One of the first steps you need to take in order to be financially free, is to know how to rebuke the devourer. Malachi 3:10-12 God has promised to rebuke the devourer for your sake. He will do His part but you must do your part. It's with the devil and demons, you have authority over the devourer.
We have a police force whose job it is to stop criminals on our behalf. There are those cases where you need to call the police. But there are also some things you can do for yourself. You can lock your doors, fit an alarm, hide the valuables in your car……….. In short, you can use your head In the same way, you must know how to keep the devourer at bay. Genesis 15:9-11. "Devourer" means that which eats up and consumes.
The devourer can be the devil or his agents, which include;

• Demons
• Circumstances
• People
• Your flesh

Now you cannot rebuke an enemy if You don't know that he exists, You don't understand how he works. 2 Corinthians 2:11 - "we are not ignorant of his devices".
In order to effectively manage you money, you must have a combination of

• Financial literacy
• Financial competence
• Financial responsibility

Financial literacy speaks of your understanding of what money is and how it works.
Financial competence speaks of your ability to handle and use money to your advantage. You don't have to be a competent driver to own a car, but you will not be able to use it to your advantage.
Financial responsibility speaks of your ability to control money, to make sound and mature financial decisions and to be accountable for those decisions.
Your first step out of your financial predicament is to TURN ON THE LIGHTS. Genesis 1:2-3 Most people have no idea what their real financial condition is. They don't know the magnitude of the problem and they certainly have no clue how to solve it.
If a person is sick, before the doctor begins treatment, he takes certain measurements - they are called vital signs - and if necessary, he will run some tests. What are the vital signs of your money? Until you turn on the lights, you are living in a fool's paradise. You are like an ostrich with it's head buried in the sand.
Ask yourself a few tough questions:

• Where is my money coming from?
• How much is coming in?
• Where is my money going?
• How much is going out?

If you have no idea where your money is going, you have given it permission to disappear. If your child were going out, you would ask where they were going. Why? So you would know where too look in case they didn't come back quickly. Money is very mobile - very liquid - so you must have a tracking system.
You must accept responsibility for your present financial situation. You must understand how you got where you are today. Quit blaming everyone else and take responsibility. Your present financial situation is the result of your past decisions. Do you know what those decisions are? Indeed it is possible to be in a financial predicament because of misfortune, but you will find that the predicament was preceded or followed by bad decisions.
Luke: 11-18, 24. The prodigal son suffered a set back, but his problems were caused by the decisions he had made before the famine came. There are people who get rich during every recession. Genesis 26:1-3, 12-14. Never blame the economy for your financial predicament.
God wants you to move from survivals to stability, then from stability to security, then from security to success and then on to significance.
BUT YOU MUST START BY REBUKING THE DEVOURER.
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