We recall that we seldom heard teaching in this area. On top of that, there were often people around us condemning churches that preach what they call the “prosperity gospel”. Again, we are reminded that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Yet, if Jesus often talked about this, he wouldn’t want us to be ignorant about it. In fact, Jesus said we cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). When I was growing up, I often heard this (mis)quote that “money is the root of all evil”. Later, I realised that the Bible says “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (I Timothy 6:10). Plus, being one of the first ones in the family to convert from another religion to Christianity, the idea of tithing and offering was a great point of contention and opposition to my conversion in the early years. Yet, I was unable to defend what this was all about and the significance because of a lack of understanding.

Then, I heard Andrew Wommack’s 4-part teaching on Financial Stewardship, 6-part teaching on Finance Series and 2-part teaching on The Power of Partnership. They really helped me illuminate God’s heart in this area and it helped set me free from a lot of religious speak and wrong thinking about finances and partnership with God through what He had blessed us with. Andrew Wommack himself had suffered a lot in his early years of ministry because he thought pastors were meant to be poor and to hear him unpack the scriptural understanding of financial stewardship that he learnt through the school of hard knocks was really helpful!