The Key to Debt Elimination

Isaiah 50:7

7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore, I have set my face like a stone,
determined to do his will.
And I know that I will not be put to shame.

Romans 13:8

8 Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.

Deuteronomy 28:12

12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them.

2 Kings 6:5-7

5 But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell into the river. “Oh, sir!” he cried. “It was a borrowed ax!”

6 “Where did it fall?” the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. Then the ax head floated to the surface. 7 “Grab it,” Elisha said. And the man reached out and grabbed it.

2 Kings 4:1-7

1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.

3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”

5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!

“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.

“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”

Nehemiah 5:1-12

1 About this time some of the men and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. 2 They were saying, “We have such large families. We need more food to survive.”

3 Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes to get food during the famine.”

4 And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. 5 We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.”

6 When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. 7 After thinking it over, I spoke out against these nobles and officials. I told them, “You are hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money!” Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem.

8 At the meeting I said to them, “We are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them?” And they had nothing to say in their defense.

9 Then I pressed further, “What you are doing is not right! Should you not walk in the fear of our God in order to avoid being mocked by enemy nations? 10 I myself, as well as my brothers and my workers, have been lending the people money and grain, but now let us stop this business of charging interest. 11 You must restore their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and homes to them this very day. And repay the interest you charged when you lent them money, grain, new wine, and olive oil.”

12 They replied, “We will give back everything and demand nothing more from the people. We will do as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the nobles and officials swear to do what they had promised.

Numbers 18:8

8 The Lord gave these further instructions to Aaron: “I myself have put you in charge of all the holy offerings that are brought to me by the people of Israel. I have given all these consecrated offerings to you and your sons as your permanent share.

Matthew 17:24-27

24 On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

25 “Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house.

But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”

26 “They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free! 27 However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

God will help you. That is a great promise from the verse in Isaiah. How awesome of a promise is that? One might ask how they avail themselves to that help. We will discover that as we go.

It's interesting that when God created us He gave us one mouth and two ears. He must want us to listen twice as much as we talk. Not only should that apply to our everyday life but more importantly with our relationship with Him. Most Christians have a one way dialogue with God. They bring their prayer requests to him like a laundry list of chores a wife gives to her husband. That is not being in a relationship with God, that is a relationship with an APM (Automatic Prayer Machine). Our time with God should involve at least twice as much listening for His voice instead of hearing our own voice. If we don't shut up long enough we don't give God the opportunity to speak to us.

Whe God speaks to you it requires the following:

1. Faith
2. Courage
3. It will line up with the written Word (Bible)
4. It will go against reasons and rationalizations of the natural world
5. The peace of God will rule

These things I can attest to you will happen and will require your obedience to follow what He tells you to do. It has been said that obedience is the highest form of worship. Our obedience to God's direction for us revealed through His Word and through His talking to us is a key to God's best for us.

Pastor Creflo Dollar said recently, "If you obey for today your tomorrow will be taken care of." That is pretty profound statement. Most people are worried about tomorrow and forsake their obedience for today. This is made obvious by this nation's infatuation with debt. Credit cards, mortgages, easy payment plans, payday loans, title loans, etc. Our sinful nature wants something it wants it now and doesn't concern itself with tomorrow. "Debt is a license to pretend" is another quote from Pastor Dollar.

God's Word is clear about debt. Romans tells us not to be in debt so the only thing we owe people is our love. What we do see from God is that He can supernaturally assist us with our debts, if we are obedient to His direction. The verses in 2 Kings 6 show us that He will make iron float in water to make sure a debt is paid. That is against every law of nature, but He suspended those laws to assist in debt elimination.

Do you think God would ever instruct you to borrow? Yes. 2 Kings 4:1-7 show us that the man of God, Elisha, instructed the woman to borrow some jars from her neighbors so she could fill them up with oil. These verses really spoke to me when I read them. She was in a situation where she was in debt and the creditors wanted to take her two sons as payment. The man of God asked her what she had in her house and her response was only some oil. As I was reading this I was struck with what I was going through myself. We have been working from our home for over three years and are trying to grow our business. God has dealt with us to create a business plan, seek funding from a bank to pay for the marketing plan and be obedient to do the plan He gave us. I struggled with going to a bank because I did not think God would want me to borrow. Dr. Dollar gave some comforting words when he said, "If God instructs you to go and borrow He's going to be responsible for paying the debt off." Praise God!

My key to debt elimination in the supernatural is to be obedient to God's instructions to you, which include tithing. The tithe is not a tax from God. The verses in Matthew tell us that. The reason for tithing is so that we can show God our obedience to His Word in the least area of responsibility. When we are faithful with that He can entrust to us the true riches of heaven.

Father I thank You today for Your Word and for speaking in to my life on a daily basis. I will strive to be obedient to Your instructions for me today and every day. I praise Your Holy Spirit for guiding me and directing me on the path You have laid out for me. I thank Your Son Jesus for making it possible for me to come before Your throne and to make my requests known to You directly. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)

The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).

Published by Erik L. Vakula
Daily Bread From the Word
Copyright © 2009 Erik Vakula, All Rights Reserved