Financial Testimonies III The Open Windows of Heaven

Spiritual Vitamin Deficiency

“Therefore we ought to give even more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.”

Hebrews 2:1

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Romans 10:17

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”

Psalm 119:130

“But He answered and said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’”

Matthew 4:4

“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Acts 17:11 (NIV)

In your natural diet, it is possible to have deficiencies. Perhaps because you like to eat certain foods and don’t like to eat others, or maybe you have a deficiency because you simply are unaware that you need more iron or more vitamin C, etc., in your diet.

The same is true of your spiritual diet. Perhaps you prefer to focus on Scriptures related to holiness and joy, but not on healing or forgiveness. Maybe you enjoy reading Scriptures about spiritual gifts. The truth is that all the Scriptures in the Bible are there for a reason. You need a balanced diet of forgiveness, repentance, faith, healing, prosperity, holiness, reverence for God, patience, joy, praise, worship, encouragement, and more.

I have learned that in different churches, I am fed different diets. I have learned that I often need to pay attention to what I don’t hear, just as much as what I do hear. I used to focus solely on what I heard to ensure that what I took into my heart was doctrinally correct (Acts 17:11). However, I have learned that I also need to pay attention to what I don’t hear.

Whatever I am not hearing, I am not building my faith to obtain. If I'm not hearing it, whatever it is, I may be in danger of letting it slip away. One of my favorite faith teachers, Keith Moore, said that he was talking to a preacher who told him that they didn’t see healings in his church. His response: We preach healings, we see healings, you don’t preach healings, and you don’t have them. I wonder if there’s a connection.

I go to a church where they never talk about certain gifts of the Spirit, such as tongues or prophecy. They are also anti-prosperity. I challenge whoever is reading this to use Blue Letter Bible or another search tool and look up the following words: prosper, prosperity, or blessed. I didn’t put any of these words in the Bible, but there are so many references to these Scriptures that you’d have to skip over dozens and dozens of Scriptures in the Bible regularly not to address them. Have you ever seen a dog skillfully use his tongue to eat all the meat but not the dry dog food that you have mixed in with it?

It's like that in certain churches. Because the leadership holds certain views on specific topics, you’ll never hear Scripture on those topics. I find that it is often better to hear a preacher preach against healing or prosperity; at least that way, I know what I am missing. If they don’t preach on it, I may not know that I am missing key ingredients in my spiritual diet.

Recently, I believe the Holy Spirit prompted me to supplement my spiritual diet. I started refreshing myself on spiritual gifts and prosperity. And even though I have written two books on Biblical prosperity, I realized I was letting what I believed about giving and receiving slip. How did I know it was slipping? I didn’t have any financial testimonies. Yes, I was continuing to give, but I wasn’t being fed faith messages to bolster my faith to receive based on what I gave.

In my current church, they are quick to use the word “tithe” in their offering appeals. Never once, however, have I heard them mention the promises that God gave to the tither:

 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Rather than quote God, the preacher asks for the tithe in the first part of Malachi 3:10 and omits the promise in that verse and the following verses. If I don’t hear that God will open up the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there is not room enough to receive, and that He will rebuke the devourer for my sakes, then I may let my faith slip in that area.

If I had never had faith in that area to begin with, there would be nothing to let slip! All I know is that I’m supposed to give 10%. I believe that leaving out the promise of God’s blessing on the tithe can result in resentment against God for asking for the 10% or guilt in those who cannot sustain giving it.  God sustains the giver. Out of the overflow of our return, we can more easily give. It is supernatural. It requires faith. But if I never hear that promise of God’s return, I can’t build faith for it.

Hebrews 4:2 says, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” This is one of the key faith formulas. When we mix faith with the Word of God, we profit or benefit by receiving God’s promises. We usually think about the faith side of the formula. But you can have all the faith in the world and not receive in an area if you don’t know what the Word says in that area.

After I started supplementing my spiritual diet and bolstering my faith in the area of God’s promised return on my giving, I began to see results. I started seeing unexpected income again. I started having breakthroughs.

I received an email from a production company I worked with two years ago, stating that they wanted to pay me to extend the usage of the commercial I did. Ever since interest rates rose, I have been praying for relief from high interest rates on credit debt. I have not been using the cards and have been accelerating their payoff, but my progress slowed to a crawl when the interest rates increased. The interest rates for the two cards were over 18% and 23%, respectively. I received a credit card offer that converts the $13,000+ combined balances on these cards to 0% from July 2025 to February 2027, with a 5% balance transfer fee. The interest rates that have been devouring my money have been rebuked!

Are you seeing God’s promised return on your giving? If not, check your diet.