Ayo Arowolo: We’re all stewards of God’s money

It was a cool Saturday morning, exactly a week to my next appointment with my mentor. I was in my study meditating on the wisdom nuggets that he gave me during my last meeting with him on how to get a business coach in the area I desired to excel. Specifically, I was reflecting on his advice that I needed to attach myself to a spiritual mentor. I had mentally pinned down Sam Adeyemi, the Senior Pastor at Daystar Christian Centre. Just as my mentor had advised, I formally approached Pastor Adeyemi to be my spiritual mentor and, he graciously agreed. We have been having good times together ever since and he has not held back anything from me.

Frankly speaking, my financial mentor has been incredibly good to me. I just sat there wondering about how undeserving I was of his incredible acts of magnanimity. I can’t recollect having done anything extraordinary for him to warrant his kindness. He has done what I couldn’t imagine: Every month, he spares his valuable time to teach me great lessons on business success and wealth acquisition. He has connected me with many of his valuable contacts. Through his monthly lectures, I have avoided many mistakes I would have made had I not come in contact with him. It is impossible to quantify his input into my life

An act appreciated draws in another. I resolved to commission an artist to design a hand-made greeting card for him as a token of appreciation since I could not think of anything to buy for him. I embossed his photograph and mine in the giant-sized card, accommodating words that best captured my appreciation. I sent the card to him the following Monday. He called me the same day to express his appreciation and to inform me that our next appointment would be on Sunday.

I got to his house on Sunday at about 1.00 p.m. as agreed. He had left an instruction that I should meet him in his Wisdom Room. The setting in the Wisdom Room and my Mentor’s dressing surprised me. The room was arranged to look like a church environment with about ten chairs and a wooden structure that looked like a pulpit. My Mentor was dressed in full spiritual regalia. I was wondering what was going on. A few moments later, his daughter, a chartered accountant based in the United Kingdom, strolled in with an elderly man whom, I later learnt, was one of his many millionaire friends.

My Mentor stood up and went straight to the wooden structure with two fairly big diaries in his hand.

There is nothing you have that God did not arrange for you. “Good afternoon everybody. I will start today’s lesson in a short while, but let me find out from my friend how he handled the instruction I gave to him.” About two lessons ago, when he looked at my personal financial statement, he pointed out my follies in classifying some items as assets. I had listed four cars as part of my assets -one official car, one car for my wife and two other spare cars. After studying the statement, he simply gave me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad and asked me to digest it and brief him on my decisions. After finishing the book, I felt stupid that I had prepared such a financial statement. A quick decision I took was to drive one of the cars, a Mercedes Benz car I really cherished, straight to a place of release and sow it as a seed. I sold the second one and put the proceeds into shares. I almost took some other radical decisions, but I had to hesitate so that I could hear my Mentor’s comments.

“That’s good, that’s good, that’s good,” my Mentor said repeatedly after I explained what I had done. “But let me ask you a question: why did you give your car to your church?”

My reply: “I consider it vanity to keep a car at home doing nothing and gulping my money without earning any money for me. I was convinced that by giving it to God, I would get it back manifold. I was sure God would direct somebody someday to give back to me may be two new cars for the one that I sowed.”

“You have taken a correct a step,” he said, as he quickly flipped through his diaries, possibly to note some points, “but you have also missed some points. And that is why I want you to pay attention to what I am going to say, because it is the foundation for everything I am ever going to share with you. If you grasp the lesson, you will have laid the foundation for your wealth acquisition drive on a rock where no storm can destroy it.”

First of all, let me say that God wants all his children to prosper. He wants us to be wealthy. Many Christians have incorrectly interpreted God’s purpose for money.

I have heard many Christians say the love of money is the root of all evil. Nothing can be farther from the truth. God never said that and He couldn’t have said that. God is only warning us not to allow money to be a god to us. He doesn’t want us to go after acquiring money for the sake of it.

The purpose of accumulating wealth is more important than the wealth “Read the Bible and digest the reason God said he would bless Abraham. God wants to bless for only one reason – so that we can all be blessings to others. God wants us to glorify Him with our possessions. If we have money and the people around us, our church, our community and our country cannot feel the impact of our money, then, we are not using our wealth to glorify God. We are all stewards of God’s money. We didn’t come to this world with any material possession and surely we are not going to leave with anything.

God is the source of good wealth and He is always looking for people He can trust to distribute his wealth. I feel very sad any time I see how Nigerians rush to accumulate wealth solely for the purpose of intimidating and oppressing others. That is an ungodly wealth-acquisition mentality. We don’t own anything. All gold belongs to God and when God sees that you use your money persistently for the wrong reasons, he will organise a way of escape for the money. Remember, I told you that money is a spiritual thing, it has wings and can fly away from you.

Look around you, don’t you see individuals who were stupendously rich some years ago, but can hardly make ends meet today? You can acquire billions of dollars if you like. But if you don’t use the wealth correctly, everything will vanish. A single sickness can clear all your life savings in a few weeks.

Wealth shared expands speedily. When you wake up every morning, always ask yourself one question: In what way can I glorify God with my gold today? Which human being can I assist with God’s blessing in my life? That is the only relevant question actually. True wealth really is measured by the number of individuals who can trace their successes to you. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian or a Muslim by religion.

As you step up your journey towards wealth acquisition, trust absolutely in God, put your finances at His disposal, you will never go wrong and he will not allow you to take stupid decisions. God does not deal with what we say we are going to do with our money. He takes interest in what we actually do with it and He will surely bless or curse our efforts according to what we do with our wealth.

I did exactly what you did some years back: I gave all my three cars to God and I was left with nothing. But in my own case, I never expected God to give me back cars or drop materials things for me from heaven. God doesn’t give money back for the money you sowed into His kingdom. When you bless God with your material possessions, in return, He gives you divine ideas. One divine idea correctly pursued and executed can give you a life-time income. It can cause blessings to flow in your direction permanently”.

“Enough for today,” my Mentor said and stopped abruptly. Moving in measured steps to my seat he gently tapped me and said: “You are in the right direction, don’t falter and God will always bless your efforts.” I was moved by the sobering sermon. I thanked him and bade him goodbye, still reflecting on the import of his message.

NUGGET

• Resolve from today to set aside ten per cent of your income as tithe. Take a decision not to rob God again. And if you are of another faith, give that money away to an individual or a charity organisation where you are not expecting a reward.
• Do this consistently for twelve unbroken months and watch what happens to your finances.
• Identify a philanthropic course you want to pursue and do it quietly without making any noise about it.

•Giving into good soil multiplies your wealth exponentially!